The Multiplayer Chronicles
by Lonewolf685
Summary: Sometimes, the best stories arn't the ones the developer creates for us, but the ones we make ourselves. This is our story, the story of Multiplayer. Follow Wolf and other players as they struggle with the trials and tribulations of dealing with under aged gamers, incompetant teammates, and secretive clans.
1. Pilot

**Author: Hello world, this is Lonewolf685, you're new favorite author for the general insanity. I'm here today to do my first video game story, and I figured what better game to start with then Call of Duty. Here's the general premise of this story. Think back to the Surprise trailer they showed before Black Ops two was released, and that's what this story will be like. I'm going to go through all the trials and tribulations of the average COD player, IE me. Fighting campers, MLG try harders, and whining six year olds who make people contemplate suicide, maybe even find a real plot with a clearly defined villian! Oh, and let's not forget those guys who play with a crying baby right next to their mic. I'm talking to you! Bear in mind I will take some liberties to make action more interesting. Anyway, time to end the opening monologue and start this show!**

**P.S. The pregame lobby is the room you see in the main menu or opening cinematic of Strike Force missions in Black Ops 2.**

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The room was crowded and didn't look to be getting any bigger. Ten out of the twelve people needed for a round of Team Deathmatch we're already here and busying themselves. Some partied up together and privately chatted, others sat motionless in the chairs of the pregame lobby waiting room while they were off getting a jaffa cake or taking a leak, while the rest tinkered with their loadouts on their wrist mounted tacpads.

One player, however, was silently gazing out at the growing throng of people around him. He leaned against the table at the front of the room that displayed a three dimensional image of the next map he would be playing on.

"Drone, eh? Looks like I might have chance this time around." The figured grumbled to himself. He was still upset over his recent loss streak, although losing over eight matches in a row would get to most people. Standing at full height he was around six foot one with short, dirty blonde hair that bordered on brown. He wore dusty blue jeans and a black short sleeve shirt with his combat vest over it. A TARDIS blue bandanna was across his forehead while black leather gloves protected his hands. He tapped a button on his own tacpad and checked his loadout.

"Might as well change things up." He told himself with a mischievous grin as he changed to a loadout he simply called Big O.

***DING*Achievement Unlocked: Our First Reference!**

"Team Death match on Drone." A voice 'droned' (**A/N Forgive me, but i couldn't help myself**) from an unseen loud speaker. The blonde's smile faded a bit as a countdown appeared in place of the model of Drone. The inane prattle and smack talk that normally dominates the pregame lobby died down as all eyes turned to the countdown.

"3…2…1!" Someone in the back of the room cheered. The world faded to black and for the briefest moment the lone player thought he was falling, until he realized how stupid that thought was because this was a game. The player went by the gamer tag of Lonewolf685, but people just called him Wolf, or Lone, but he dislikes that name so call him Wolf or he will teabag you with a vengeance.

Wolf was starting to hear noise as light once again came to the world. "Anyone got a mic?"

"Yeah…" Wolf groaned at the nasally voice of the kid who sounded way too young to play this game.

_If he starts ordering me around or giving tips everyone already knows, I'm muting his ass._

"Good. I want you to run down the middle and throw your grenades at-" Wolf tapped a few keys on his tacpad to mute his teammate.

When he looked up he found he spawned on the map, and judging by the large drone to his left and small building to his right, he spawned on the southern edge of the map.

An Mk 48 materialized into his waiting hands. "Not since the RPD has there been such a fine LMG." Wolf ran a loving hand down the barrel of his gun before checking his EOTech sights. Looking over the ammo belt being fed into the Mk 48 he appreciated the full metal jacket rounds that would give him an edge when fighting enemies in cover.

"Everyone ready?" Someone said, followed by several grunts of reply. A final timer counted down in front of us. The one who was counting aloud earlier looked ready to start again, so Wolf went to work muting half his team.

"Team Deathmatch!" The announcer's voice rang throughout the map, signaling the start of the match. The team scattered in all directions, except one guy who was the console equivalent of AFK.

Wolf shook his head at the away guy. "In every match there's one of you, isn't there?" He pulled out a bouncing betty and tossed it at the man's feet. It bounced harmlessly off the man's leg and landed with a THUNK as it armed itself. "Maybe I'll get a kill when someone tries to off you."

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: Brother's Till Your Bloody End.**

Wolf scanned the map from his position in the parking lot, the sound of cars exploding and teammates having their heads vented by high caliber sniper rounds was a constant companion as he sprinted towards the staircase leading into the drone factory proper. He slammed into the side of the doorway and checked inside. Three bodies lay on the ground, two lined up against the window and one just past the second doorway.

Wolf reached into a pocket on his vest and pulled out his sunglasses. He slipped them on and his eyes where instantly flooded with raw, battlefield data as his HUD booted up. The bodies had floating skull and crossbones over them, indicating they were allies. "Well this leaves only two possible options. First, enemy sniper on the other side of the factory out gunned these guys, or second, someone made their way around the map in record time, slipped past me and my team, and killed them all with silenced weapons and knives."

Raising his Mk 48 to his shoulder and looking down the scope, Wolf crept into the room until he was just peeking around the second doorway. "Nothing on the right. No camper means who ever came through here is either long gone or it was actually a sniper."

***Ding* Achievement Unlocked: Occam's Razor FTW! **

Taking a few steps back before sprinting forward, he dove behind the deactivated CLAW. "Oh god that hurt!"

"You hit?" A guy with a Skorpion EVO asked as he walked in at full height.

Wolf debated whether to tell him he was probably about to get shot standing around like that or to simply wait for it. "Hey, how about you go across while I cover you?"

"Gee, that would be real nice." He took position next to the shattered window while Wolf readied his gun. From his load out, he could tell he was using the one of the preset classes, which means he is really low level or just enjoys the Skorpion EVO.

_This guy is definitely not from Jersey. Maybe one of those foreign countries like England or India or Texas._

"Wish me luck!" He vaulted over the window lip. A loud crack resounded through the air as a round tore through the poor sods chest cavity. His death, however, gave Wolf enough time to pop out of cover and zero in on the sniper.

"Say hello…to my little friend!"

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: That Never Gets Old.**

If there is one word to describe how it feels to get your first kill of the match, Wolf would tell you it felt good. The subtle amount of recoil that raised the gun just enough so the first ten rounds went right into the surprised sniper's head brought a smile to his face. The tiny 100 that popped up on the middle of his HUD told him the man wouldn't be getting up.

"Oi! I heard gunshots over here!" The voices and his HUD's minimap told Wolf that whoever was coming wasn't friendly. Reaching down to his waist, he pulled out a concussion grenade and hid along the right wall. He began counting off the seconds.

_Three. _

"Dave, why the hell did we run all the way over here? The fighting is on the other side of the map!"

_Two_

"I don't want to be flanked by some noob and his rocket launcher, so shut up and find him. Bill, you go check the ground floor. Jan and I will hold position up here."

_One._

"I'm never going to get any score streaks if you keep using me as your hunting dog."

_Zero._ Wolf leaned out from cover and lobbed the primed grenade into the room where the three where still bickering.

"…I mean I think I deserve my concussion grenade."

"You already have a concussion grenade, Bill. We all have them." Dave looked ready to hit Bill.

"No! I mean there is a-" The tactical grenade went off, the force devastating their ear drums. Wolf rolled out of cover and opened fire on the dazed group. The one called Jan was cut down from the barrage hitting him square in the chest, but Dave and Bill were smart enough to go to prone.

"Shit! He's got an Mk 48." Bill cursed over the hail of bullets. Despite people's views on his intelligence, Bill knew his guns.

"Stow it. When he stops to reload, pop up and waste him!" He gripped his Scar-H tighter while Bill his S12.

Wolf felt his gun get hotter and hotter as the belt rapidly depleted. "Almost out. Time to play, dirt bags." The gun clicked empty so he dropped it. Bill and Dave decided now was a good time to jump up. This would be the one of the biggest mistakes of the match for them.

With great dexterity, Wolf whipped out his secondary weapon, a HAMR. Pulling back on the charge bar, Wolf found the trigger and leaned into them. Dave took a few rounds to the shoulder, but managed get to cover next to the doorway. Bill, however, took the brunt of the assault, with the bullets passing through him like tissue paper.

***Ding* Achievement Unlocked: The O Was For Overkill.**

"Damn it. All he wanted was one, lowly scorestreak. He was one kill away from getting a Care Package. Was that too much to ask for?!" Dave roared from behind his feeble cover as Wolf's stream of bullets ceased.

"Stay down if you don't want to join him."

"You son of a…You just ran out of ammo, didn't you?"

"No…" Wolf didn't sound all that convincing, which pretty much confirmed to Dave that Wolf ran out of ammo.

"I'm going to enjoy this." The bullet's that struck his shoulder made it impossible for him to steady his assault rifle, but hip-firing would work just fine since Wolf was at the halfway point between either ends of the factory. He was about to turn the corner and waste him when five shots rang out and nailed him, from neck to head. He fell to the floor stone, cold dead.

"I told him I didn't run out of ammo."

***Ding* Achievement Unlocked: HAMR Time!**

Wolf blew on the smoking barrel of the HAMR before shouldering it and retrieving his Mk 48. He fed in a new belt of ammo before checking his tacpad. His eyes twinkled when he saw he had a UAV ready to deploy. Hitting the launch key, Wolf leaned out the window of the drone factory to admire his work.

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"What's the plan this time, Dave?" Bill and Dave had respawned back on the north side. They were currently crouched out of sight of the southern spawn.

"My map says there is still someone inside the building. I'm going to assume it's that prick that got us, so we are going to flank him and end his streak." The duo entered the lot and made a beeline for the stairs.

"Wait."

"What? I'm not stopping to shoot the computers again."

"Not that. Look." Bill pointed towards the AFK player still in the lot below. "A free kill wouldn't hurt, right?"

They casually walked back down the stairs, readying their combat knives.

"Dibs." Both of them said at the same time.

Dave ran a hand through his curly black hair in frustration. "How about we knife him at the same time? Whoever gets the kill doesn't take point when we go in."

"I'll take that bet."

"Then I'll stab him from the front and you take the rear.

"But I hate taking it in the rear!"

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: I'm Sorry...But's That's Too Easy**

After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Bill took position behind Mr. AFK. "Ready."

"Stab on the count of three. 1…2….3!" Bill and Dave lunged, knives burying themselves in their intended target.

"I got the kill!" Bill cheered. The cheering was cut short as they heard a click followed by a whirring sound. Dave watched everything in slow motion as Wolf's bouncing betty leapt into the air and spun in place an inch in front of her face.

"Mother Fu-" BOOM.

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Wolf was still looking for his UAV, briefly forgetting you don't see friendly UAVs, when two kills flashed across his HUD. "When did I get those?"

"Nice kills dude." A guy said over the team coms. "But do you mind helping us on the west side? Half the team is pinned by snipers."

"And the others?"

"They keep rushing the enemy across open ground with SMG's and shotguns. I'd be laughing if it didn't get old four minutes ago."

Wolf was already sprinting down to the factory floor and into the hallway leading to the southern spawn. "Don't we have snipers of our own?" He grunted while climbing through a shattered a window, rather than use the sliding door which would make more noise.

"Everyone wants to use suppressed weapons and run around. The most range we have is with an SMR!"

"Fine, just stay down and watch the doors." Running through the final door, Wolf was greeted by a fresh breeze and the smell of gunpowder. Running left he made his way up some stairs and found himself in thick foliage. The crack of a sniper drew his attention to a prone figure next to a tree. Taking a hesitant step forward, Wolf reached for his combat knife.

"Time to die." He whispered, but stopped himself when he saw the red beams of a claymore next to the prone marksman. With a grin he sheathed his knife and looked down the sight of his Mk 48.

"You just going to stand there or are you going to shoot?" The sniper spoke, causing Wolf to freeze in his tracks.

_Curse my big mouth!_

"I mean seriously guys. Me and Neil have the map locked down so just rush them."

_Thank god he was just talking to his team. Time to get to work._ Wolf aimed and fired a short burst at the enemy claymore. While it may be a directional explosive, planting anything that goes boom right next to your abdomen will kill you, which is exactly what happened.

"Looks like you just had a bad case of…" He removes his sunglasses. "Blowback."

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: YEAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!**

"If you're done having fun back there, Horatio, can you get this sniper off us?!" The guy from before yelled.

"Sorry about that. It's hard to resist." Wolf slipped his sunglasses back on and made his way to the nearest building where the sniper that was chewing up his team awaited.

Wolf could almost hear the guy roll his eyes. "Not really. Just don't make the crap puns. It's very easy if you think about it."

"But I don't need to think to make a pun, so by your logic it's easier to tell the puns, jokes, and assorted memes." Silence followed. "Hello?"

"I've lost my faith in humanity. Goodbye world." The voice told him before Wolf heard something over the coms akin to a pin being pulled from a grenade, followed by a window being shattered, a two hundred pound weight falling two stories, and finally a grenade detonating. A new message flashed across Wolf's tacpad.

69ingChipmunks has left the game.

"What kind of name is that?"

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: Ask Trey Parker.**

Shrugging off the loss of 'Chip', he continued into the building. Ascending the stairs to the second floor, Wolf came face to face with the bane of his team's K/D. His rifle, a DSR 50, was balanced on the window sill while he looked down the sights.

"So we meet at last." He didn't even turn as he squeezed off a round. The man was a little shorter than Wolf, with raven black hair that was slicked back and went down to the base of his neck. On his head was a forest green beret. Green fatigues and boots that fell short of his knees adorned his lower half while a green, long sleeved shirt clung tight to his skin and finished his green motif.

"Hey, um…do you know where everyone is. Usually I die quite often, but I haven't seen anyone on your team since those three guys earlier." Wolf asked while glancing down the stairs.

"That's to be expected, seeing as they all left."

"What?"

"The first one you killed, Jan, quit immediately after his sudden demise. Bill and Dave after your bouncing betty. Manny had to take out the trash so he'll be AFK till the game is over. We started this match with only ten people so that leaves you, me, and your…cohorts." He indicated with his rifle at the building across the way, riddled with bullets and bodies that had yet to despawn.

"Those people are why I'm Lonewolf685. It's not that I especially like playing alone, it's just that I always end up that way." Wolf raises his Mk 48. "Time to end this song and dance."

He let go of his rifle and retrieved his BR23 with suppressor from its holster. "I concur."

The two squared off, LMG versus pistol. When a person has a wish that contradicts another's, the person with the stronger will wins out. This was that battle of wills, where both sides wanted nothing more than to kill the other.

"Draw!" They roared, throats straining from the effort as they raised our guns. The sniper fired early and a burst caught Wolf in the knee before he could aim properly. Wolf, however, waited till he was at chest level till he fired. The sniper was able to get off a second burst before Wolf opened up. The sniper was good, but Wolf was a savant with him Mk 48 and eviscerated the guy from the stomach up. He fell backwards with his arms spread eagle. He almost looked like a fallen angel to Wolf.

***Ding* Achievement Unlocked: Shootout At High Noon.**

_Watch way to much Supernatural._ He thought as checked his leg. "Already healing. You've got to love videogame physics."

He thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye, more specifically a lack of something. Since he entered the room there was a small red light coming from the corner of the room to the left of the door. Wolf began to turn, but his head was obstructed by a silencer being placed against his head. What little leeway he had to turn with allowed him to see the recently killed sniper and a dead tactical insertion tucked into the corner of the room.

"Yes. Any world that lets the dead come back at any place they wish is truly marvelous." He cocked the hammer of his BR23. "My gamer tag is CulturedKiller143, but you can call me Neil. It's been a pleasure killing you."

"Same here. I'll be sure to do it again when I spawn."

"No. You won't." The three bullets that followed the pulling of his trigger tore through Wolf's skull, killing him instantly.

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: Your Karma Ran Over My Dogma.**

Wolf was transported to a small room. A single chair with projector on tripod sat next to. He popped into this room already seated and the projector whirring to life. On a seamless concrete wall the projector showed Wolf and his last five seconds of life from the perspective of Neil.

"Not bad for a Brit." Wolf grumbled. The five seconds ran down and a flash of light blinded him as he was transported once again. Finding himself back in the same parking lot this all started in, he began to sprint for the main road down the middle of the map when everything went gray.

"Defeat!" The announcer's voice rang out. Wolf looked down at his tacpad and checked the score board. Despite Wolf's…impressive…six kills and one death, Neil had scored thirty two with only two deaths. The rest of Wolf's team was ripped apart and cost him the game, or since Wolf was the last one killed, he cost them the game.

"After all that…I lost. Again." Wolf seethed until an icon popped up on his tacpad, indicating he got a message. Tapping it with no small amount of force, he opened the voice message.

"That would be your ninth loss in a row. Call me if you would like a tenth~" Neil said in an annoyingly sing song, British voice. The message ended and Wolf promptly deleted it.

He looked up and realized he was back in the lobby, where everyone else had already left. His shoulders sagged as he walked out.

"Is one win too much to ask for?!"

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: Chapter 1 Complete.**

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**Author: There is the first chapter. Glad to write this story at it is a challenge to write something like Call of Duty for me, let alone multiplayer. There will be more characters to come, with Wolf making friends, enemies, and annoying acquaintances who last one chapter.**

**Wolf: Not my fault half the people who play multiplayer AND have mics are annoying. That's not to say there aren't nice people who simply want to have a good time and are respectable, but the annoying ones, sadly, leave a more lasting impression.**

**Neil: Like you?**

**Wolf: No. I don't use a mic so people don't have to deal with my cursing. I am considerate after all.**

**Neil: Sure you are. Let's just wrap things up here.**

**Author: Thanks Neil. Finally I have an OC who doesn't insult me. On a final note, I would like ask if people would like to submit their own OC ideas. Send me loadouts, personality, general description, and any quips or one liners they would say and I'll try to them work in. If I like the character enough, I might use them as a recurring character. Thanks for reading and hope you will read Chapter 2 when it comes out. **

**P.S. The loadouts and characters don't need to be practical(Someone who only kills with no scopes or uses a crossbow only is a possibilty) or ultra detailed(I/E Perks, Wildcard, target reticles for individual sights, but camos for weapons and knives is good. Characters should have a personality, but i don't need their birth sign.) but give enough information that he/she is unique and I know how they would act. NOT ALL CHARACTERS WILL BE RECURRING! I don't want to send the wrong message, so i'll make it clear. Characters sent will be given their due, and if they come with an awesome story(Like a truly memorable match, even from past COD games) I'll try and tell it, but not everyone is going to be in every, or even multiple chapters. That doesn't mean i'll just use them once and never consider them again. It just means i won't build chapters or plan plot points around them, that they will fill the role of Bill and Dave, but with more respect. **

**Thanks for listening to my rambling and happy reading :3**

**Wolf: Don't forget to review :3**

**Neil: They love that bloody emoticon... :3**


	2. Paranormal Inactivity

**Author: Welcome back to the mad house. Sorry for the wait, but I had to write the final chapter for another story and it took forever, but with Millennium's New Cat finished, I can fully invest myself into this story.**

**Neil: Of course you will, and may I ask if I'll be killing Wolf today?**

**Wolf: Grrr…**

**Author: Sorry Neil, but no. I love you, in a platonic way, but I have another OC of mine that I want to throw in.**

**Krieg: Guten Morgen, my fellow bad asses, or should I say bad ass as I only see one at the moment.**

**Neil: The latter is more likely, unless you have a mirror and counted yourself as well as myself.**

**Author: Anyway, Krieg won't be coming until chapter three, but this chapter will be bringing us two reviewer submitted OCs. I present to you…DRAMATIC EFFECT PAUSE…Bradykins98 and ShyerTheFox.**

**Shyer: You can call me Shyer, as the text on the left says. **

**Brady: And you can call me Brady. Whining brats beware my M27.**

**Author: Shyer was given to me by "Im the only exception" and Brady from "Bradykins98". These aren't the only people who've submitted OCs, so I'll mention the creator whenever a new character comes. If you want to be mentioned, and draw attention and views to your own stories, submit to me your OCs for a chance to get in a chapter with Wolf and Co.**

**Wolf: Is that supposed to be some high honor…did I just insult myself?**

**Krieg: Ja.**

…**..**

Wolf was heading into a pregame lobby, and being the masochist he was, had recently decided to change up his normal routine of Team Deathmatch and Ground War.

***DING*Achievement Unlocked: Killing Things That Are New and Different is Good.**

No, today he tried out Chaos Moshpit. Wolf went in expecting to find the worst of the worst, 14th prestige with diamond camo on all their bloody SMGs and AN-94s.

Never before had he been happier to be wrong. On Nuketown he found some of the most balanced teams he had ever seen, with everything short of the special weapons being used. Wolf brought his Vector with foregrip and EOTech sights, an experimental combination he developed to improve range and accuracy without limiting maneuverability. You wouldn't know it by how many times he died, but it was a rare kind of bliss he was experiencing when one life he gets sniped, the next death is by an SMR, the third by a KSG, fourth taken from the rear by PDW-57, and to finish it all off he was killed by his favorite LMG, the Mk 48.

Wolf still thinks that was his best match in all of Black Ops 2, despite everyone else's opinions.

***DING*Achievement Unlocked: Yup, He's a Masochist**

Capitalizing on his optimism, Wolf went into a new Chaos Moshpit match, again on Nuketown. He was instantly whisked away into the match, apparently already in progress.

…...**Capture the Flag**...

"Get your bums in gear, you lazy wankers!" An extremely pissed Englishman yelled at his squad. Bradykins98, Brady for short, and his team were stuck in the south side of the map.

By stuck, he means they were busy playing Atari.

"Come on, this is Capture the Flag, not Pitfall!" The sheer stupidity of the situation drove Brady so far he emptied half a clip of his M27 into the easter egg, but to no effect.

"Having team problems?"

Brady spun around, eye already down the sight of his millimeter scanner. He relaxed when he saw the one speaking was friendly.

ShyerTheFox raised his hands in defense. "Wow there! Just striking up conversation." When the situation seemed less tense, he took notice of just how similar they were. Both had dark brown hair, even darker brown eyes. The both carried M27s, albeit with different attachments. The two major differences between them was that Brady a nasty looking scar going from the chin to half way down his throat and the body armor he wore was brown, while Shyer's armor was a woodland camo.

**Achievement Unlocked: First Submitted OCs!**

"Sorry, I've been expecting us to get fragged for the past three minutes. I mean look at us!" Brady gestured to his two other teammates. "We're sitting here in the open and a well-placed brick of C4 can take us all out."

Shyer nodded his understanding. "I don't think that's a problem. We've capped only one flag before the guys found the Atari and the enemy has two. They've holed up in the north and look to be waiting us out." A distant gunshot punctuated his statement. "And they appear to be using the shuffleboard court to pass the time."

Brady's face contorted in anger. "They think they can play shuffleboard in the middle of our game? Oh I'll make them regret that!"

Brady stormed off in between the bus and delivery truck. He was halfway around the bend before three different guns ripped him to shreds. Five seconds later he respawned and stood beside Shyer, who was far too kind to laugh at his comrades demise.

"So they can play shuffleboard AND watch all the approaches." Brady spat on the ground. "Don't suppose you have any ideas to get past this?"

Shyer looked around with a constipated look he called his "Tactical Face." His eyes locked on the delivery truck.

"I've got an idea, but it's going to require a feet of ingenuity, stealth, and incredible precision to even work."

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? **

…...

"You're turn Wolf, or are you chicken?"

"Why the hell are you here Neil?" Wolf didn't bother to look at the smirking sniper. By some cruel twist of fate, Neil was also in the game. He was prone on the grass along the left fence, eye to his scope and keeping both trained on the bus in the center of the map.

"Because to me it feels like you're stalking me."

"Why on Earth would I stalk a Yank such as you?" Letting out a groan, Wolf stopped bickering with the Brit and aimed for the tiny puck at his feet. He feathered the trigger, firing a short burst that struck the puck dead center.

Running off video game physics it was launched a few feet ahead, coming to rest at the base of the pyramid at the other end of the court.

"By the scowl on your American face, I'd say you just lost."

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: Who Plays Shuffleboard Anyway?**

"How do you know I'm scowling?" Wolf questioned, walking away from the court and leaning against the house.

Neil looked up from his sniper. "Because you are so bloody predictable! I beat you on Drone, and the only reason I'm not beating you know is because friendly fire is disabled."

They had tried it, with tomahawks and Hellstorm missiles, but to their chagrin found each other invincible to the other's assault.

"So what if I'm predictable? I do what I like and enjoy myself. It's not like I come out here to actively try and ruin other players' days by dominating and humiliating them in a videogame."

Neil hesitated before responding "Hey, I think I see something."

Following Neil's gaze Wolf looked out the side alley. "I don't see anything."

"Look there." He pointed towards the delivery truck. "I swear on the queen that box moved."

Wolf stared long and hard at the truck. True, there were boxes scattered about from the game's initial fighting, but they hadn't moved past the radius of frag grenade.

That is, until a box **did** move.

"Jesus Christ!" He fell flat on his ass, scrambling backwards until he was next to Neil. "Ghost Box!"

Neil rolled his eyes at the gibbering fool. _Idiots, the whole damn country is full of them._ When the chanting of Ghost Box grew too tiresome, he reached behind Wolf's head and smacked him.

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: Respect My Authorita, Probie!**

The blow caused no real damage, but did break the cycle and brought him back to his senses.

"Thanks, the Ghost Box scared me." He thought he looked like a man by admitting that, but didn't account for Neil's lack of caring.

"I don't think it's a ghost, Wolf."

"Then how do you explain the little girl in the red dress?"

"Do you see a little girl in a red dress?"

"No."

"Then shut up."

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: Obligatory FEAR Reference**

"It's not a ghost box, fool, but it's definitely not a normal box." Upon further examination they saw the box slowly move towards their alley, stopping every couple of seconds.

"Looks like a box of oranges. Maybe their rolling around under the box." Wolf sighted the box with his Vector while rising to his feet.

"Maybe, but you should go check. Just to be on the safe side, I mean."

"And why do I have to go and check out the box?"

"Reason one," Neil raised his index finger "you lost the shuffleboard game." He raised his ring finger. "Reason two, the other team is busy playing Atari, so you won't get shot at." Finally he lowered his index and ring fingers while raising the middle. "Final reason, I've got you covered so that should be enough to reassure you to against an enemy gunship, let alone a box."

"And what if I take a rocket to face? My last name isn't Vakarian!"

"Who's Vakarian?"

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: Normandy Forever**

It took Wolf a minute to fight off the urge to unload every last bullet, lethal, and tactical into Neil, much the same way Mason fought the urge to kill that Russian in the Afghanistan level.

"When this is over, I will find where you live and beat you within an inch of your life." Wolf stalked towards the box at a crouch "But for now, I'll oblige our shared curiosity."

He scanned the area within 180 degrees of the alley entrance until he spotted the box. From when he began to approach it, the box had made it to the mailbox and was currently ramming it repeatedly.

"Alright, get out from under the box." Wolf shouted at the box. The ludicrousness of the situation was lost on him. "I'd prefer to see the face of the man or ghost I'm about to kill."

The box stopped its ramming and turned towards Wolf, the sound of its wheels grating on his ears.

"Wait a second…boxes don't have wheels!"

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: They Do!**

A rare in-game gust of wind blew over the map, knocking the box aside and revealing in all its neon green glory, an RC-XD.

Gunning the tiny engine it sped towards Wolf. He was already back the way he came, shouting all while, "Ghost Car! Ghost Car!"

Neil saw the incoming kill streak and fired with his normal brand of lethal precision, but for every shot he fired, Wolf ran in the way and brought himself closer and closer to his own demise.

"Shoot the damn car!" Wolf yelled.

"I can't because you're in the way!" The sniper continued to fire until his clip ran out. Rather than reloading he switched to his silenced secondary and continued firing.

He almost had the shot when Wolf dove over him, clearing all obstructions between him and the RC-XD.

All obstacles, meaning there was nothing protecting him or Wolf when it detonated of its own volition, killing them both.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Double kill!" Shyer cheered, dropping the tablet onto the bed he was sitting on. He grabbed his rifle and moved to the second story window of the southern house with Brady already crouched below the sill.

"It's now or never Shyer." The two popped up and, firing from the hip, opened up on the opposing window. A man with a crossbow didn't stand a chance against the combined barrage. The remaining enemy was in the garage, a sentry gun at his side and already spinning up.

The duo leapt out the window and dove for the open delivery truck. In midair, Brady pulled out an EMP grenade, primed it, and threw it into the garage.

"Mother fu-" The shower of sparks released by his destroyed sentry gun cut off the enemy's expletive mid-sentence. When his vision finally returned, he found two frags against his feet.

"-cker!" Two simultaneous detonations ended his life. Brady nudged the corpse with his foot while Shyer took position at the back door.

"Clear! They probably spawned on the other side of the map so we can grab the flag at our convenience." Shyer told Brady, signaling towards the flag in the backyard.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on it." Brady scratched his chin and left the garage for the flag. He plucked the flag from the ground and raised it the sky. "I. Have. The flag!"

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: It'. So. Flappy!**

Shyer stifled a groan and took point, leading the way back to their initial spawn. Rather than going along the side with the welcome sign, they went around the delivery truck and tour bus, cutting through the garage.

"Hold up!" Shyer raised a fist and looked out the garage backdoor. "Where's the other team?"

Brady hit a button on his tacpad and brought up the scoreboard. "No one's left the game."

"So why aren't they here?" Shyer reluctantly motioned Brady forward, head swaying side to side for a hidden camper. With a sense of urgency, Brady ran and planted the flag next to his own teams. The points for capping the flag played across his HUD, and to his surprise, no bullets followed.

"I guess they went back to the north spawn." Brady began the ascent up the stairs to the second floor deck. "Let's see what they're doing and plan our second run. We need one more flag to win this."

"Roger." Shyer followed.

"Why do you use all that military jargon?"

"We are playing a military shooter, Brady. This may not be ARMA 2, but I can still use the jargon." Shyer retorted.

"I'm just saying some people find it-"

A B23R was put to the back of Brady's head. "Annoying." The duo were back in the bedroom with the large window when they realized they weren't alone. Neil was leaning to the side of the doorway, Wolf on the bed, and both had their weapons ready.

"Nice trick with RC-XD and the box. Had my associate's nickers in a right twist, you did." Neil said. "But I can't have you guys winning this game."

"How did you get here before us?" Shyer asked, eyes gauging the distance between himself and the window and found he could he just see the street below.

"Ah ah ah." Wolf wagged his finger. "I don't think you want to do that. You might get quite a surprise when you hit the bottom~"

Looking down he saw a bouncing betty and several shock charges littering the street, one charge not even a foot away from Shyer's teammates.

"To answer your first question, I direct your attention to the dead tactical insertions in the corner." Wolf hiked his thumb behind him. "Neil here has been teaching me how to use them."

"I don't know how you roped me into doing that."

"I won the first game of shuffleboard, and that was only one we actually bet on."

"Next game, I want you to fork over some cash."

"You two won't have a next game!" Brady barked, taking advantage of his opponents self-made distraction. He spun around and knocked away Neil's gun before slipping behind him and pinning his arms.

"Put down the gun, or I'll backstab your British cohort!"

"Go ahead." Wolf aimed at Shyer. "I'll kill him, you kill Neil. Then we see what kills faster in close quarters, my SMG or your rifle."

"Don't suppose you have a way out of this Brady?" Shyer's voice rose an octave, fear keeping him from controlling the level of his voice.

"Well Shyer, old buddy ol pal, have I ever told you the difference between the gamer, the character, and the badass."

***DING* Achievement Unlocked: Baird Loves Story Time**

"Do tell." Neil said with false enthusiasm. "We have nothing better to do after all."

"Shyer, the gamer gives orders." Brady tightened his grip on Neil. "The character obeys." He shimmied towards the window. "But the badass makes it up as he goes." Heaving with all his might he threw Neil and himself out the window to the minefield below.

Wolf and Shyer both rushed over to the window, watching the pair fall in almost slow motion until Brady hit the bouncing betty. It was flattened against the ground by his falling form, but didn't fail to detonate.

The blast killed him and Neil instantly, but also set off the shock charges. A train reaction spread across the street, ending with the two guys playing Atari getting shocked.

"What the hell was that?!" The one playing dropped the controller and brought up his diamond AN-94. The second guy, his guest, brought up his Skorpion EVO from the preset classes.

They both noticed Wolf up in the house and nailed him with simultaneous headshots.

"Thanks for the help." Shyer hollered down to them.

"NP." The first said. "Do you know who disturbed our game?"

"I think it was the British guy. He was trying to put a bouncing betty at your feet when my buddy killed him, but he couldn't get the shock charges."

"Those pricks think they can screw with us?" the guest fumed, already turning towards the north house.

"We'll show them!"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"What's the plan know?" Wolf asked Neil, both back on the shuffleboard court.

"I'm getting bored farming XP off these guys so I say we go out and grab the last flag."

"Sounds good. You want to snipe from up top and I'll…" Wolf trailed off. "Do you hear something?"

"Yeah." He looked out at the yard. "Oh bugger."

"Hey guys. Miss us?" Brady, Shyer, and the rest of their team were standing around Neil's flag.

Wolf peered out from below Neil. "Of fuck."

"You're about to be."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The game ended, and all eight players returned to the lobby. Four of them walked out laughing their collective asses off and intending to do a few more matches together.

Two of the remaining four immediately logged off.

Wolf rubbed the back of his head nervously. "That could have gone…better."

Neil glared at him furiously. "I'm going to go take a rape shower after that horrific match we had. When I come back, you are so dead!"

Neil logged out, and Wolf soon followed, but both would agree they won't be going to Nuketown anytime soon.


	3. Back in the Black

"I'm a masochist. I'm a masochist. I'm a masochist."

This became Wolf's personal montra as he entered the lobby. He hadn't been online in some time because following that dreaded match at Nuketown, Neil kept true to his promise and stalked him in every match he went to just to put a bullet between his eyes. Wolf found it odd he always ended up on the enemy team,and that Neil found him despite being on his ignore list, but accredited it to Neil's persistence and sheer hatred of Wolf.

Wolf was only coming back now because he was bored replaying his other games.

To avoid the British sniper, he decided to go into a Kill Confirmed lobby, were only a fool, or no scope genious, would use a long distance weapon.

From his place next to the door, he could see the map was Hijacked. He didn't have much experience here, but that isn't always a bad thing.

Before he had time to chicken out, the match began.

...

Spawning on the south end of the large yacht, his HUD, already in place, instantly assaulted his eyes with the skulls and crossbones of fallen teammates.

"Wow. A match were I'm not the one getting the most deaths! It's like Christmas, but without the fat man trying to climb down the chimney."

Wolf was raised by a protective mother.

"Who will then proceed to have sex with you, like the Thanksgiving Fear Turkey!"

A very protective mother.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL!**

Snapping out of his recollection of childhood trauma, still ongoing, he ran to the right side of the ship, his HAMR at the ready. Wolf kept it trained on the doorway ahead him, where he could hear intermittent spurts of gunfire.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." He froze, realized what he said, and face palmed.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: TWO DAYS AWAY FROM RETIREMENT!**

His hand had slid halfway down his face when he felt the first bullet catch him in the shoulder, spinning him around. Two players with suppressed weapons were unloading into him, killing him before he could even ID their weapons.

Opting for the fast respawn Wolf skipped the kill cam and came back to life once again at the south spawn.

Seeing the opportunity to flank his killers he returned back to the right side, only to find them long gone.

"I hate Lightweight!" He growled, stopping at the trash can that provided cover from the middle of the deck and doorway in front of him. Wolf reached down to grab an EMP grenade from his belt when bullets began to impact around him.

Thinking quickly, Wolf vaulted over the can and crouched behind it. The suppressed rounds lacked the penetration for the normally flimsy cover so he thought he'd be safe.

***DING*ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: INCOMING!**

"My kill!" A giddy voice proclaimed from behind him. The muzzle of, presumably, a shotgun was pushed against the back of his head. "Headshot noob!"

...

One R870 related death later Wolf spawned on the north end. Luckily his spawn was timed with his 2 other teammates. Silent nods were exchanged between them, no words needed to express that they all intended to savagely gun down the enemy for the wounds to their collective pride. Fanning out, with Wolf going to the right towards the hot tub in the center while the others went through the house and the left side.

Wolf peered out from the ladder to the hot tub and saw one teammate, a brunette with her hair in a ponytail, behind the showers in the middle of the deck, while the other was by the side room, he had shaggy blonde hair that went down to his nose.

Again nodding, the three broke cover and rushed the open, letting out word less shouts of rage. Nothing met their challenge.

"Where are they?" The blonde asked.

"Maybe they holed up on the south side." The brunette replied.

The blonde looked ready to say something when a tomahawk flew through the air and struck him in the foot, killing him instantly.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: ANYONE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS?**

The brunette ducked into cover in between the showers while Wolf hauled himself into the hot tub. He scanned the way they came, while trying not poke his head too far out and getting killed.

"There's one on the balcony, one in the front door, two they way I came from, and another on the east side!" Wolf shouted over the gunfire, already aiming at the balcony. Before he could get a shot off the brunette nailed the target with her M27 before ducking back into cover. Switching targets, Wolf opened up in the doorway, catching another assailant before he could he could get behind decent cover.

There were only three left, but they were approaching fast and the pool wouldn't offer much cover when got up close.

"We have to move before they overrun us!" Wolf shouted to the brunette. "You pull back to the house and I'll cover you."

Unlike the time at Drone, he meant it.

"Okay. I'll flank from the tunnel belowdecks." She slammed in a fresh clip and fired around the corner. Wolf hip fired at the enemies targeting her, more intent on forcing them behind cover than actually killing them.

Seizing the opportunity the brunette broke cover in a mad sprint for the house. The attacker's were still pinned so it was looking to be a clean get away, until a sharp report made Wolf whirl around in time to see his comrade take the full brunt of an R870.

The same giddy player was standing over her body.

"Oh I got her in the boobies!" The nasally voice and word choice told Wolf he had either yet to hit puberty, or was Deadpool out of costume.

Growling with rage, which was becoming a nasty habit that he saw no need to break, Wolf bought his HAMR to bear on the girls killer. He squeezed the trigger, but realized too late he had used up all the ammo in his clip covering the now dead girl.

The noob with the Remington, who will now be referred to as Remmy, finally took notice of Wolf.

"Catch the frisbee doggy!" He whipped out a brick of C4 and threw it into the hot tub.

Wolf didn't even try to get out as the explosive detonated.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THE WATER JET WAS TOO GOOD!**

...

This went on for another 4 minutes, with Wolf's team being out done in the flanking game at every turn. Whether he stayed with Patty, as the brunette turned out to be while the blonde was Luke, or they all separated, the result was always getting crushed in a brutal pincer movement. It took them awhile to realize why they were being slaughtered.

They were fighting a clan. The entire enemy team was in a organized, if small, clan.

If things didn't improve soon Wolf was going to have a rage quit of monumental proportions.

The kind of rage quit not seen by the world since the Mass Effect 3 ending.

Luke, Patty, and Wolf were currently running for their lives towards the south end of the map with the only thing closer than the enemies on their tails were the bullets dancing around their feet.

"Wolf, throw a bouncing Betty!" Luke shouted, priming a tactical and throwing it in front of them. The grenade let forth a massive plume of smoke between the showers and the hot tub while Wolf tossed the Betty nearby. Luke pulled out his combat knife and ducked between the showers. "Keep going, I'll buy some time."

"I'll stay with y-" Patty was cut off as Wolf grabbed her arm and dragged her past Luke and out of the smoke. They were already half way through the house when the Betty went off.

Wolf let go of Patty to check his tacpad and found the Luke had knifed two of the enemy while the Betty had gotten a third, but Remmy survived to kill Luke.

"That Boshtet!"

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: CURSING IN QUARIAN FTW!**

Looking up from his tacpad Wolf found Patty glaring at him.

"We could have helped!"

"No Patty. The more people in the smoke screen the more likely the ambush would have failed, and then we would have ended up separated like the last dozen times. Also, my Betty would have killed me, revealing we were in the smoke."

Really, Wolf had no qualms about leaving Luke behind. It was the smartest, most effective move he could have made with what they had. Effective, but cold.

"God I hate myself sometimes..." Wolf grumbled to himself. Sometimes he just had these funks where he ended up being an asshole, more so than usual.

"Guys! We have them cornered!" Remmy's giddy voice assaulted their ears.

"Out the back. Now!" Wolf yelled, barreling down the steps to the exercise room with Patty close behind. They burst out onto the south side of the ship, eyes temporarily blinded by the eternal sunset.

When they adjusted, they wished they hadn't.

"They fell for it!"

"What noobs?!"

"Can I tea bag the girl?"

"No! I already called dibs."

Four pairs of silenced weapons and a shotgun were pointed at the duo in a semi circle around the doorway. For whatever reason you'd rather believe Wolf moved in front of Patty.

He's cold, but he ain't dead. Yet.

"We'll what are you waiting for already?" Wolf shouted at the snickering group. "You want us? Then and come and get us!" Dropping his HAMR and drew his combat knife. "Or are you to afraid to fight one on one?"

"Like we are that dumb." Remmy laughed and aimed the sights of his shotgun. "On the count of three, men!"

"It was worth a shot." Patty reassured Wolf, who put away his knife and resorted to sulking in the face of imminent slaughter.

"One!" Wolf heard a chime from his tacpad and looked down. He tapped Patty's shoulder.

"Two!" Upon seeing the player list her sober expression turned into one of glee that rivaled Remmy's.

"What's so funny?" Remmy asked, as did the questioning look Wolf gave her.

"Nothing." Patty chortled. "Please continue with your counting."

"Are you in that much of a hurry to die? Oh well...where was I?"

"Drei."

"No, I'm pretty sure it was-" Remmy stopped when he realized no one on his team spoke, and neither did the two in front of him.

"Drei...dat iz Deutsch vor three. However, I'm counting funf asses dat need a kicking vor vrightening dis lovely lady."

The group turned their weapons from Wolf and Patty to glare at the figure behind them. Leaning against the minibar was a site draped entirely in white.

He wore a white, heavy winter jacket that had even whiter fur sticking out from the bottom and the hood that was pulled back. His pants were also white, even his sneakers. His skin was pale, almost like the vampires of old. The white hair he had was raised into almost triangular ear like tufts on the sides of his head, like a foxes.

What drew everyone's attention was the albinos piercing red eyes, that managed to convey a million death threats with only a parting glance. In one he hand he held an FAL OSW with a custom grip, but no camo beyond the starting black. His other hand was running across several bottles in the bar.

He let out a noise of disgust and pushed off the bar.

"No bourbon! Vat bar doesn't have bourbon?" From where Wolf was it seemed the albino had already had a finger or two. "Oh ve'll, I'll just have to settle for killing you."

Remmy and his team's initial surprise turned to hysterical laughter at the sluggish albino who lazily raised his FAL with his one hand.

"Looks like we got a badass here." Remmy snickered. "What a rescue from the freak German!"

The albino twitched in response. While everyone was focused on the albino, Wolf began to reach down for his HAMR until Patty rested a hand on his shoulder and shook her head.

"Just watch. I always enjoy this part." She whispered to him while turning back to albino.

"Eins, you ruffians corner dis damsel. Zwei, der is no bourbon." The albino gnashed his teeth and held the FAL in both hands. "Drie, I'M NOT A FREAK!"

Inhumanly fast the albino fired two rounds into the left most enemy. The player died, falling to his knees with two words escaping his lips.

"My balls!"

The albino got off another kill to the balls on the right most player before dashing behind the bar.

"Frag his ass!" Remmy shouted. His cohorts stopped cupping their balls and retrieved their own bricks of C4 and threw them. As they went over bar, however, they were immediately shot out of the air.

"How did he do that?!" Remmy, and Wolf, shouted.

"Trophy system." The trio of clan baddies turned to find Krieg had moved around the bar and was crouched a few feet away. "Now die you für`n Arsch Drecksack!"

He feathered the trigger twice, expelling two bullets from his FAL. Remmy and his crew didn't have time to react as the bullets went through the crotch of the teammate beside him, AND through the guy behind him.

Remmy was shaking now, holding his shotgun of over his own, underdeveloped reproductive organs.

Wolf sneered at his former tormentor. "Looks like the tables have turned, Remmy."

"Remmy? Like Remmy LeBeau?" Remmy asked.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: BEST X-MAN EVER!**

By the time Remmy blinked, Wolf and the Albino were in his face.

"YOU ARE NOTHING LIKE THE RAJUN CAJUN!" Both cocked their fists back and slugged Remmy, knocking him to the floor. Both pulled out their knives and grinned sadistically.

Remmy gulped. "Oh balls."

"Not for long."

...

"So i take it you know this guy, Patty?" Wolf asked. They were lounging in the wave pool at the tip of the south end. Gunshots and the sound of a clan crying about their balls could be heard in the distance, but it was diminishing over time as the enemies slowly rage quit.

"Yeah, I met him a few months ago." Patty responded. "He's kind of a womanizer, but at least he's nice about it and doesn't use lame pick up lines or talk. I sent him a game invite around the beginning of the match and luckily for us he got online when he did."

"I guess that explains all his nut shots."

"He thinks it will help him win over the woman, but it gets mixed results. Still, having a guardian angel comes in handy."

Wolf cringed in recollection of the many nuts shots he saw before leaving the fighting to the albino.

"So does he have any chance with you?"

"Nope~" Patty laughed and looked off to the side. "Oh, looks like my brother wants to get on. Cya later."

A flash of yellow light, like a flashbang but not as harsh, emanated from her as the Patty traded places with her brother. Wolf turned to the side as the process of changing the player starts by making the body and then the clothes.

" Hello, Yank."

"No..." Wolf slowly turned and to his horror was face-to-barrel with Neil and Patty's M27. "YOU'RE PATTY'S BROTHER!"

Neil tapped a few buttons on his tacpad before leering at Wolf. "She's my baby sister, and thanks to her I've found my favorite bullet sponge."

"Damn it Neil! Aren't you over this yet?" The Brit tapped his chin thoughtfully for a moment.

"I'll call your debt settled after this match." He pressed the barrel against Wolf's head.

Wolf's eyes darted back and forth until they finally settled on Neil.

"Alright, kill me, but before you do that tell me this." Wolf lips curved into an almost imperceptible grin. "What is your sister doing now?"

Neil cocked his head to the side in confusion. "I just got the groceries and she's making lunch."

"What is she making?"

"Corned beef on rye, why?"

"So you're saying is you told a girl to make you a sandwich?"

"Not in so many words, but I guess so."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: OH SNAP!**

"Vu Dösbaddel!"

Neil fell to his knees in the wave pool, hands cupping his recently shot testicle. He looked to the north to see a furious albino with a still smoking FAL.

"Oh bollocks he shot my bollocks!"

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: IS THAT EVEN A REAL PHRASE?**

Neil raised his M27 one handed, so the albino shot it of his grip.

"Who are you?!" Neil demanded.

"My gamertag is WarIncarnate, but I have many names. I've been called the next Bismarck, " Bismarck readied his FAL "Mars, Aries," Mars looked down his sights while Aries put his finger on the trigger "but I prefer my simplest, most poignant name."

"What is-" The albino put a bullet right between the sniper's eyes. Golden dog tags floated over Neil's corpse, which he took without hesitation. The world began to turn grey, an apparent victory snatched from the jaws of defeat.

Wolf and Neil returned to the pre-game lobby and stared with mouthes agape at the albino. He placed a hand on each of their shoulders.

"To you, my new brothers in arms, you may call me Krieg."

Neil's thoughts on this: How do you go from shooting someone in the balls to calling them your friend?

Wolf's thoughts: He just turned a guaranteed loss into a win, saved me from Neil, and wants to be friends.

Maybe this return was a good thing...

**Wolf: hey, we're back!**

**Neil: I went down too easy.**

**Krieg: You're a sniper, so of course I beat you in a close quarters.**

**Author: this story is back in track, people! Forgive the long absence, but after my computer got a virus I almost gaEd up hope of writing! Thankfully my father didn't need his old iPad and gave it to me, so I can know use this to write the story. You should bear in mind I might miss more errors, but hopefully that ruin the story.**

**Krieg: I look forward to killing for your enjoyment.**

**P.S. this is based off an actual match. The only thing different is that no Krieg came to my rescue, and we had no teamwork to even try and fight back.**


	4. The Red Cat

"Sorry, but I've got plans to play with some other guys..." A small Mandarin woman said, already half way out of the lobby door, leaving a rejected Krieg slumped forward in the middle of the room. He found himself soon after being dragged into a private lobby and sat down by Neil and Wolf who stood in front of him.

"Okay, we have to ask. What is with the flirting?!"

In the past six matches, Krieg has hit on a total of seven woman, and one cross dresser who was very flattered and gave him his number.

"I'm mean sure you're classy," Neil said. "And amazingly you didn't once mention your dick, but don't you think it's a bit much?"

Wolf nodded in agreement. "You've died over a dozen times taking bullets, frags, and attack dogs for these woman you don't even know!"

"Und you see a problem with my chivalry?" Krieg glared back at them.

"No!" The two hurriedly cried before quickly composing themselves when the glare lessened. "We just want to understand you, seeing as we are going to be working together."

"So you really want to know why I am a defender of ze woman?" They nodded. "Alright zen."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: STORY TIME**

Krieg tapped a few buttons on his tacpad. The table at the end of the room blinked to life and projected a 3D model of Slums.

"It all started with a game of search and destroy." He stared at the model with a wistful look on his face while Neil and Wolf took the seats next to him. "I was coming off a losing streak-"

"Wait!" Wolf yelled in surprise. "You can lose?!"

"Ja. I wasn't always as good as I am now, and COD still requires some teamwork to win. No one man, regardless of what MW3 tried to tell us, can carry an entire team."

The German returned his gaze to the map and pointed to the east side.

"This is ver we spawned. From der we split into two groups, with half of us going for the courtyard and the bomb, while myself and the others swung along the bottom of the map and moved towards their spawn in an attempt to flank them."

"Smart move, playing the objective and moving in for the kill."

"Dat is what we thought as well,Neil, but it proved to be voolish. The enemy sent the majority along the south and were entrenched in the Humvees. They had proven smart enough to already blow them up, and even set up those Nervensäge ASSAULT SHIELDS!" Krieg's fist slammed onto the table, startling his audience. Wolf was going to ask what upset Krieg when Neil shook his head.

"Continue please."

"Danke." Krieg pointed at a holographic building labeled 'Electro'. "We pushed up from here, and the fighting was heavy. Before we could even sight the first enemy a sniper took out our pointman. That left me and dis girl...I fancied."

A slight blush crept across his face.

"She had the most gorgeous green eyes, her blond hair pulled back into a bun. Her voice was as smooth as silk, yet commanding and firm."

Wolf whistled. "Sounds like one hell of a woman."

"She was. Saber was the best player I had ever met."

The uptick at the corner of his mouth quickly flew south.

"Anyway, with me and Saber pushing up the Humvees, the other half of the team was fighting to get to the bomb site, but claymores and LMG fire was tearing them apart, meaning we wouldn't be getting any support because they had enough to deal with. Regardless, we drove the enemy back out of their entrenched positions and continued west until we reached the laundry mat. There were only three enemies left, all holed up In the mechanic's garage. We were ready to rush towards the fountain when the worst possible thing happened."

"You got fragged?" Wolf asked.

"Had to make you're sister lunch?" Neil threw in his two cents.

"My controller died."

"Audible gasp!" Wolf and Neil hollered.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: IN THE WORDS OF C.C "YOU'RE ALL IDIOTS"**

Controllers of the future are much like the Nervegear from Sword Art Online, being that they are head sets that record the electrical impulses from the brain, block them so you don't start flailing on your couch, and use them to move your in-game character. The headgear can simulate various in-game effects depending on what game, gamemode, or setting you choose. For instance in a normal COD game mode, like demolition, getting shot will cause the player to feel a light tingling sensation. In a game of hardcore team deathmatch, however, the game amplifies the intensity of feelings, ranging from a mild shocks when shot to a sharp pain in the legs if you fall too far.

It can even simulate, to varying degrees depending on the settings used, the affects of intoxication, human contact, and vertigo. The intoxication has been a highly debated matter, but all attempts to remove it have met resistance from the NRBA, or National Rifle and Booze Administration, a combination of the two greatest lobbyist ever known.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: FUTURE FACTS, FORM THE FUTURRRREEEEEEEEEE!**

"So what happened after your controller died?" Wolf casually munched on a bag of kettle corn, which he had gotten while Neil explained the whole controller technology stuff.

"I was in the corner next to the door facing the mechanics, so I didn't have to worry too much about being spotted, but Saber was another story. A LMG opened up on the doorway, forcing her behind cover. By this time my controller had automatically stopped blocking the signals to my body and allowed me to go searching for new batteries."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: EVEN IN THE FUTURE, WE HAVE THAT PROBLEM!**

"But you got the batteries, right?" Wolf asked in an almost pleading voice while Neil stole his kettle corn.

"Ja, but it took too long. After three minutes I had put my controller on and was able to look around. That was when I saw them."

Wolf stopped eating when he noticed the German was shaking. Suddenly Krieg slammed both fists down onto the projector table with enough force that, had it been real, Wolf was certain it would have snapped like a twig.

"When I checked my mini map I found everyone was in the room with me. The only reason I was undisturbed was because Saber had pushed me into a corner behind a washing machine. In the doorway was a dead enemy with LSAT, presumably the same player who had killed the other half of my team. I had peered around the washing machine and found...I found those bastards beating Saber into the corner!"

A disturbing trend has gained some popularity over the years. It has been found possible for at least two players with assault shields to get an enemy to expend all their ammunition into their shields, drive them into a corner, and proceed to knock them back and forth while pausing to allow for the victims health to regenerate.

"She had tried to take the enemy and herself out with a frag, but they had the flak jacket perk and covered her with their shields."

A wild look overtake the German, and neither Wolf nor Neil could blame him. Sexism in gaming hasn't been completely eradicated, even after the "Why shouldn't woman drive? Because there are no one roads between the kitchen and the bedroom." joke became a punishable offense.

"There gamertags were KingOfHeroes and SirBluebeard, but people just called them Gilgamesh and Caster."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: GUESS WHAT I'VE BEEN WATCHING?**

Krieg's lips pulled back into a Chicago sneer.

"I grabbed my FAL, turned off the select fire, and scored my first two nut shots of my COD career."

"And Saber?" Neil's own face was taught with tension.

"Alas, she would never play the game again. She was sick of the people who pounced on any woman with a mic. Gilgamesh and Caster were only the most recent in a long list." Krieg turned away from the table to look at his comrades. "Regardless, I made it my mission for over a month to hunt those two dogs down until they stopped playing the game entirely."

Wolf's hands unconsciously moved to shield his own reproductive organs.

"So that's why you are so protective of female gamers?"

"Ja. I swore to protect ever woman from the tyranny of sexism...well almost everyone." There was a perceptible shudder that travelled down Krieg's spine.

This got Wolf's attention.

"There are woman you won't protect?"

Krieg raised his hands in defense. "I didn't say dat! It's just one girl...who scares me..."

"I'm sorry I didn't hear that last part."

"She scares me..."

Jaws hit the floor. The one that was eating kettle corn closed his first before opening it to ask "how could anything possible scare you?"

Pushing off the table, Krieg strode towards the door out of the lobby, wringing hips hands nervously.

"I believe it is best I show you."

...

And so trio went to track down the one girl Krieg wouldn't protect because she was tough enough to scare even him. They found NoLifeFeline on a game of hardcore free for all on Hijacked.

Entering in spectator mode they spawned on the second floor of the north side structure.

Neil was the first to pick up on the gunfire coming from the helipad and led them to the balcony facing the north end of the ship.

"She's certainly...smoking..." Wolf said this not in reference to girls physical appearance as he had yet to see it.

It was to the massive plume that engulfed the area below them.

All eight players where right in front of them, encompassed within the cloud. While Wolf ducked under stray tracer fire that couldn't even hit him, Neil checked the scoreboard.

"Looks like the NoLifeFeline is in the lead with only fifteen kills left. This might talk a few minutes."

"No, it won't even take a minute." A solemn Krieg rasped.

In a flurry of electricity, bullets, and blades seven players dropped dead. In nine seconds.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: WE'VE GOT A BADASS HERE!**

The unlucky seven mooks respawned and charged into the thinning smoke. All went quiet a few seconds later, not even a single bullet fired or footstep heard.

SHINK!

A skull and bones popped up on the northern tip, then another, and another, with each kill closer to the spectators than the last. One guy dove out of the smoke. He appeared a grizzled man in his thirties and was scrabbling across the deck to get inside.

He let out a blood curdling scream of girly terror when something grabbed his boot and dragged him into the smoke. Two shock charges later he was dead.

Neil and Krieg gulped as Wolf leaned over the guard rail with rapt attention.

"You boys...like what you see?"

Like those scenes in horror movies where the expendable guy slowly turns around to be face to face with the monster, they turned to find a girl with a Cheshire grin.

She had crimson hair that went just past her shoulders and bangs that obscured the top half of her face, but they could briefly see viridian eyes looking them over with a predator like gleam. She wore a red and gold striped scarf that trailed down her back and to her ankles. Her shirt was brown with a black cat wearing a tie and glasses along with the words 'LIKE A BOSS' in large white letters. Since all men naturally have elevator eyes, they then noted her jeans and beige sandals.

"My eyes are up here." The redhead flicked her Ronin ballistic knife and Ronin combat knife up to her face, bringing there attention away from her B-Cup. "Much better."

She stuck her knives into a utility belt that also held her tactical equipment before eyeing Krieg with an inquisitive look.

"Long time no see, Fluffy. Ready to reconsider my offer?"

"My name isn't -" Wolf pushed Krieg to the side, which meant he went over the railing to the deck below, and extended his hand.

"Hi!" His voice an octave too high, cheeks red, and eyes not making contact. "I'm Wolf, the Brit is Neil, and Fluffy-" a string of German curses could be heard in the distance "- is Krieg."

The girl took a step back, abashed by his spontaneous introduction, before clasping his hand between hers.

Blood trickled out of Wolf's nose as he hurriedly shook her hand.

"Here," she tapped a few buttons on her own wrist mounted tacpad. A ding was heard from Krieg down below and Wolf's tacpad. "I just added you three to my friends list, so we can play together later."

"S-S-Sure!" Mr. Nosebleed was going pale with blood loss, which only made the girl grin wider.

"Now if you'll excuse me-" she spun on her heel and threw a shock charge at the ladder to the balcony. A garbled cry rang out, followed by the thud of a player hitting the deck below.

"You bitch!" The electrocuted player cursed, still twitching on the floor. Before he could grab his MP7 the girl was beside him and threw another shock charge, enjoying his spasms with unhealthy glee.

"A bitch? Just who the hell do you think I am? I'm me! Felicity the killer!"

Felicity drove her combat knife into the her final kill, and then thrust it towards the sky. As the game ended she let out one final shout of:

"If you're going to dig, dig to the heavens. No matter what's in my way, I won't stop. Once I've dug through, it means that I've won!"

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: KOMINA = FELICITY IRA!**


	5. Teamwork and Corruption

"I could use some support, comrades!"

Krieg blind fired over the crashed aircraft of Carrier's B-flag. He was hunkered down behind the northern of the two fighter jets, or whatever the slag heap was supposed to be, with a torrent of bullets marred only by the occasional RPG coming his way.

"Ja, ja. I got you covered."

Neil's voice replied, punctuated by the crack of his DSR 50. The gunfire from the south spawn lessened, allowing Krieg move up to the farther craft and cap the flag in their game of domination.

Neil readjusted his sights from atop the parked helicopter at the north end before once again resting the barrel on a motionless rotor blade.

"We need to hold the line until we reach the point cap." He coolly spoke into his mic before sending a few more bullets down range.

While he focused on his head shots, a lone sniper dropped to his knees at the ladder to the scaffolding that would have allowed him to sneak up on Neil, attempting to counter snipe rather than knife.

"Eat my large, hot bullet you fish and chips loving ass." He growled, finger moving to the trigger.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: PHALIC SYMBOLISM + OFFENSIVE STATEMENTS = ONE LINER**

"Was I really that bad?"

The sniper moved to change targets, but only to managed to get the still shouting Wolf in his sights before his MK48 put 5 rounds into his neck and head. The snipers inert corpse tumbled off the deck to the sea below.

Neil looked down to the barrels next to the metal protrusion in the deck that was impossible to shoot through at Wolf.

"Your lines weren't that bad, but they got close."

"That makes me feel somewhat better." Shading his eyes Wolf surveyed the field, which was relatively safe.

Krieg had a half empty bottle of bourbon sticking out of his coat, indicating it was a real bottle. His lack of sobriety made his nutshots impossible, unless a woman was at stake, but made his insults ten times more offensive, attention holding, and...German.

No one knew what he was saying, but they knew enough to be insulted and focus on him.

This also meant few were actually aiming at the relatively exposed supporting duo.

Regardless, they continued to give out covering fire and sometimes score a kill.

"So," Neil slammed a fresh clip home "when do you think they will try and go through the inside of the ship?"

Wolf couldn't help but laugh. "Since we locked down B, it makes sense they would try and circumvent it by going straight to our spawn. By that logic, they should already be there.

...

The sniper, Gary, and his triplet brothers Terry and Barry, who had matching KSGs, sprinted off the deck and on to the low section at the southeast corner of the map, just barely dodging a stray shot from Neil. They hopped from the deck to a parked drone, and then to the entrance to the ship's interior.

"So did you really get cross mapped by an LMG?" Barry snickered, soon joined by Terry.

"And what's wrong with that?" He who was shot snapped back.

The snickering two didn't bother responding, instead taking point with their shotguns at the ready. Gary begrudgingly took the rear, thankful he equipped an ACOG sight for his Ballista.

They reached an intersection, where the right opened to a small room that would lead to the deck or go back on the path to the front of them. Gary side stepped into the room so he had a clear shot to cover their advance for the rest of the way down the hall.

"You're clear." Gary whispered. "You two clear out the snipers so I can take position by the crane and get rid of the Russian."

"I thought he was Austrian." Barry muttered.

"I was going to say Australian." The third brother said. In the moment they stopped to debate the ethnicity of the drunkard, a canister was flung through the doorway at the end of the hall with such force it made it all the way to Gary before releasing a plume of smoke.

Gary fired sporadically through the smoke, intent to deter any attack while he was blind. His brothers were firing as well, sending slugs in just about every direction BUT in front of them.

To Gary's surprise, before the smoke cloud has even halfway cleared, his brothers stopped shooting.

"Did you get him or did you just run out of bullets?" He hollered.

Silence was the only reply.

Gary rose to a crouch and edged towards the door way in front of him. The smoke thinned, allowing him to see his brothers standing in the hall, surprisingly unharmed.

Surprising that their own shotguns didn't ricochet off the wall and kill them.

Still, the hall appeared clear so Gary stepped out to meet his brothers.

"So I guess whoever threw that smoke is camping outside?"

"Maybe under the ramp?" Barry offered, still aiming down the passage in case of attack.

"Or along the side of the bulk head." Gary said, thinking it more likely.

Terry turned towards his sniper wielding brother with a huff, ready to argue over something easily confirmed or denied.

Ready, until a knife shot into his jugular, the force of which slammed him into the wall with a sickening crunch.

Almost as fast as the knife was an arm jutting out from the large window and wrapping slender fingers around Barry's throat.

"BARRY!"

Some say things like this seem to happen in slow motion, like the moment was so important that it _had _to be drawn out, but as Barry was pulled out the window by the phantom arm, time seemed to flow normally for Gary, perhaps even accelerated.

In under three seconds, there was only one of the triplets remaining.

Gary swung around to face the window, Ballista loaded and ready. He wouldn't bother with a catchy line this time, just old fashioned bullets to the face.

"To the face!" He shouted, completely ignoring his internal decision not to shout.

Leaning out the window, he found several barrels and protrusions along the outside of the ship, revealing a path one could possibly jump across or await in ambush, but no enemy.

"To the face? Those are the worst last words I've ever heard since 'jam it in'."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: MEME!**

Felicity smirked from behind Gary, the previously fired ballistic blade already recovered. Hopping along the barrels with the grace of a cat she had easily been able to kill two of the triplets before heading farther down and entering the ship to come up behind the final brother.

"Arrivederci~" She purred, before stabbing Gary in the back, both knives tearing through digital flesh and bone before meeting at spine, where she pulled the knives out and kicked Gary over the edge.

The last thing Gary saw was the menacing grin upon his killer as he tumbled to the waves below…

And his negative K/D.

…..

"Excellent game my friends!" Krieg boomed in the game's lobby, irritating the stream of players leaving the room after their crushing loss. Krieg was currently suffocating Neil in an uncontrolled bear hug with one arm while his other was grasping his empty bottle of bourbon.

"Can't. Breath. Krieg!" Neil choked out, earning a laugh from Wolf and Felicity.

Those two have become almost inseparable outside of matches, and by inseparable meantime implied that Wolf is following Felicity.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: WHIPPED!**

Nodding to the door, Felicity led the group out of the lobby as the next group slowly shuffled in and towards a private lobby they had begun to frequent. When everyone was assembled she started up a custom game with no time limit on Plaza before sending everyone in.

It was something Felicity did after every match that the group they formed quickly adopted, in no small part due to Wolf's pleading. The point of the pre-game lobby was twofold.

One, it allowed them to celebrate recent victories and gave them time to cool off so they weren't going into the next match hotheaded.

Two, it let them lick their wounds after losses and formulate plans to deal with the many enemy team compositions of Black Ops 2. Forming a line across the battle field like they did in Carrier might work most of the time, but if the enemy had been punched a hole in the line, or managed to slip through like the triplets attempted, they would have been exposed and possibly beaten.

Thus, they take the time to strategize and plan for every contingency, just not this time.

"Shots, anyone?" Felicity twirled two bottles of liquor in place of her knives from behind the bar in Plaza's club located snuggly in the map's right flank.

Krieg leaned against the bar along with Wolf and rapped his knuckles on the artificial wood.

"Ja! It may not be as good as the real stuff, but free booze is free booze!"

While Krieg partook in the hair of the dog that bit him, Neil collapsed into a couch to the right of the hallway leading to where the B-flag in domination would have been.

"If you want to drink, why not just go to an actual bar rather than come online?" The Brit coolly asked, his disdain for the German when drunk almost as great as his hatred of Manchester United.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: I DON'T KNOW CRICKET, SO HOW ABOUT SOCCER!**

"I would, but…" The German spun around, and by some miracle stayed upright. "my refined tastes have caused a serious drain on my funds."

"So you got online because you couldn't afford real liquor." Felicity nodded her head in understanding while she poured several shots on a tray and slid the tray towards Krieg. He happily took the tray, and the bottles from an enabling Felicity, before sauntering to Neil's couch with a swagger in his sloppy step.

Wolf raised a brow as thought to ask 'Why must you encourage them?' to which Felicity could only laugh.

"I find Fluffy to be pretty funny when he's like this, and..." she leaned over the bar and whispered into his ear. "...when he passes out you can pet his tufts."

"Tufts?" She pointed to the white hair that struck out from the side of his head.

"Those are the softer than a kitten's belly, and he is even more protective of them than a lion is of its young."

"You seem awfully familiar with Krieg…" Wolf's voice was tainted with jealousy.

Felicity found it amusing.

"It's nothing to worry about. I've been trying to get him to work for me for a while now, but whenever he was in a game with me he would become incredibly terrified after I killed someone." She twirled her fingers in the folds of her scarf absentmindedly. "Wonder why…"

Now Wolf was the amused one. He walked around the bar and leaned against the bar with Felicity.

"Maybe he thinks your preferred method of killing is a tad extreme, even if the old game rating system was abandoned years ago and publishers can do anything nowadays."

"Oh you guys haven't seen me be 'extreme' yet."

The threatening aura that emanated from her would have made any sane man inch away, but Wolf wasn't someone you called normal by any stretch of the imagination. Actually he seemed to relax even more.

"I look forward to it."

Felicity gave him a queer look. "You are one odd individual…oh that reminds me of something I wanted to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Why do you use an Mk48?"

"I enjoy being in the support role, so an LMG is a perfect fit for me."

"But your score must suffer, right?" She clasped her hands with his, eliciting a nosebleed that would take forever to get out of his shirt. "It isn't fair we take all the kills while you end up with the crap K/D."

"W-W-Well someone h-has to fill the support role…"

"Ahem!" Neil coughed while propping up a passed out Krieg. "You think I need help supporting the group? My sniper gets three times the kills your LMG does, and I've probably saved this lugs life twice as many times."

"I didn't mean to offend, but I'm pretty sure I just saved your life last match!" Wolf snapped back.

"You did, but in the time it took you to kill one guy, I killed three."

"Exactly!" Felicity shook him to get his attention back. "Neil already fills that role so you can play on the offensive! Get those kills and live a little!"

"I suppose I could use a HAMR next match…" with a painful jerk Felicity jumped onto the bar and brought Wolf with her.

"Forget the LMG! If you want kills in this game, then there is only one weapon for you to use!"

…..

_Two Weeks Late, Domination on Carrier_

…..

"Suck it!" A small brunette of average build shouted while throwing a frag grenade onto the B flag. It detonated, killing the would-be attacker before he could even get half way through taking the flag from her team.

"Shinikami, get back in cover." A beast of a man called calmly from behind. He was dressed all in black, with knee pads, shoulder pads, combat boots, and HUNK's gas mask. All in all, he looked like Chuck Norris, without a beard yet still terrifying. His Chicom SMG coughed three suppressed bursts over the small girl's head, killing an advancing enemy.

"Fine Rinzler, but you better not stop my next rampage." LittleShinikami, or Shinikami to her fellow clansman, casually walked through the open away from the flag and back toward the nearest cover, occasionally stopping to fire off a couple rounds from her Peacekeeper.

When an enemy did dare to take a shot at her, he found himself quickly gunned down by a third member and his HAMR from atop the parked jets at the south east part of the map.

"At this rate I'm going to run out of ammo before the match ends." Marcus Arlington shouted at the crazed girl. "Can. either of you pick up the slack so I can go scavenge?"

"Sure." Rinzler replied in his usual collected manner, as he is the gentle giant of the group.

While Rinzler and Shinikami continued to pummel the northern side of the map, Marcus climbed down from the fighter and went for the eastern route through the ship to find some scavenger packs. He went down the hall until he came upon his team's AGR and went up the stairs at the midway point of the hall.

He found a scavenger pack next to a crane and quickly retrieved it.

"Illusion! Stop running into the open!"

Marcus could hear Shinikami yelling at their youngest clan member, Illusion-fox. He meant well, but Marcus had his limits and Illusion tested them every day.

Regardless, he had a responsibility to cover all of their asses, even Shinikami and Illusion.

He went back down the stairs, through the hall, past a fighter jet, up another flight of stairs, and back to his position between the two parked jets on the main deck.

Rinzler and Shikikami were still behind their cover, while Illusion was standing in the open and dumping way to many magazines from his Peacekeeper into the enemy position.

"Can someone pull him into cover? "

Rinzler was about to do just that when a beep rang from everyone, including the enemy teams tacpads, drew their attention.

"Two new players?" Illusion laughed at his tacpad. "Like two more players will help them win. We can take them all on!"

While he and Shinikami, because she won't turn down the opportunity, laughed manically, Marcus groaned.

"Let's take this seriously guys. Who knows what kind of skills they have-"

"A-FLAG HAS BEEN TAKEN!" The game announced grimly.

With the precision of meerkats the small clan turned to the A-flag.

"I got it!" Marcus leapt from the jet and sprinted across the deck towards the flag. As he reached the captured flag he saw a glimpse of a player dart around the corner to go along the west side of the ship, but decided to focus on capping the flag.

After an abnormally long wait, at least that's what Marcus thought, he had capped the flag.

"Alright, the flag is back guys." He hollered, breaking the silence. A shiver went up his spine. "It's never silent on Call of Duty."

Creeping around a crate, Marcus surveyed the battlefield, and found himself in the middle of Hell.

Rinzler was face down on the ground, four holes going through his gas mask and out the back.

Shinikami was still alive, but a ginger girl had an arm around her throat from behind and was dragging her into the armory with a laugh that drowned out her captive's curses and threats.

But in the middle of it all, Illusion was held by the collar of his Black Ops 2 zombies shirt by a lone gunman. He pressed his AN-94 to the kids temple and held the trigger until the clip was empty. With a raucous cackle he dropped his victim and replaced his empty clip.

"Tick Tock."

Marcus jumped when the electric eyes of the killer locked with his.

"Goes the clock."

The killer took a step towards, breaking Marcus's trance. Steadying his hands, Marcus looked down the sights and fired at the killer. The killer side stepped the barrage with ease, and continued to as the torrent followed him.

"Time for you to die."

Marcus snarled and started waving his HAMR wildly, spraying bullets everywhere in front of him. The killer stopped his side stepping and dove back the way he came. He grabbed Illusion's body, holding it in front of him as a human shield, and charged towards Marcus.

"Oh just die already you animal!" Marcus dropped his HAMR and pulled out akimbo Executioners.

Like a force of digital nature the killer charged through the hail of buckshot, thankful the weapon had a range as short as Gabe Newell can walk continuously.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT: WE'LL STOP THE FLAMING WHEN YOU RELEASE HALFLIFE3**

When Marcus had to stop to reload, the killer threw Illusion's corpse at him, knocking him to the ground as the corpse de-spawned. When he lifted his head from the deck, he felt the barrel of a gun bump into it. The electrified eyes once again locked with his.

"Why are you-?"

The killer shot him, not bothering to let him have his final question. He already knew what he would ask. Everyone asks it.

"I do this because winning is fun." And so the killer laughed, while a green eyed ginger appraised him from a distance.

"Is he the latest recruit?" A voice came from behind Felicity.

She didn't need to turn to know who was behind her. "Symba" Leonardo McMorro was a confidant of hers that she has trusted since the original Black Ops, which is where she started playing. Leonardo wore a blue and white checkered, button down shirt with faded jeans. Besides looking like a character from DayZ, which is an amazing game with this modern tech, he also wore a checkered shawl that matched his shirt, leaving only his green eyes and level voice to convey what little emotions his carefree self choose to express.

"Possibly. He has improved greatly, taking on random teams and know an organized clan almost entirely by himself."

"Except you usually pick off a girl for yourself." Leonardo spoke in a manner that was neither condemning or condoning her actions, just stating a fact.

"What can I say? I take what I want."

"True, but do we want him?"

"We've seen him go up against random players, now clans. That leaves only one test left before we can make a move."

"Should I call…'Them'?"

"Do it."

Leonardo left without another word, leaving Felicity to resume her appraisal of the killer. While she had talked, he had ceased his laughing and exterminated the enemy clan as they re-spawned.

Through torrents of bullets he slaughtered.

Through explosions and fire he massacred.

Through the cries of the broken and defeated he butchered.

Wolf was no longer content to kill and be killed. Now he wanted to win.

**Wolf: Winning!**

**Felicity: Good my Padawan! Embrace the dark side.**

**Krieg: Hey! I'm the Assault Rifle badass here, not Wolf!**

**Author: yeah, but you use semi-auto and he has full-auto. Two entirely different breeds of gun.**

**Neil: I miss when I could kick the yank's ass :(**

**OC list and there creators:**

**Rinzler- Ghost2291**

**Shinikami- LittleShinikami**

**Marcus- Kiu1q2w**

**Illusion- Xx-Illusion-Fox-xX**

**Leonardo- Zigbon (P.S. he will be coming back. Making him a recurring character)**


	6. Glitch in the System Part 1

**Author: Sorry for the wait guys, but I've been distracted by two things. **

**I got the Metal Gear Solid HD collection for Xbox, so I have 5 games to play and I'm loving every second.**

**Felicity: Even though it took him 13 hours to beat MGS2 because he couldn't shoot for ^* #.**

**I began the sequel to Millennium's New Cat, Millennium's New Cat 2. THIS DOES NOT MEAN I'M GIVING UP ON THIS STORY!**

**Wolf: Because no other story he's done gets this many reviews. He's a sellout.**

**Author: Screw you, I have reviews!**

**Katzen: On with the show.**

**Author: Get back to MNC2! *chases Katzen off.* Now start the show!**

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::**

Krieg was uncomfortable. So much so he hasn't had a drink in the past three days.

The group was back at Plaza. The others were at the bar, celebrating another 'win' as they called it. Krieg called it slaughter of the worst degree. Sure, he had his occasional rampage with nut shots galore, but when he killed the other team they were annoyed and angered.

What Wolf does terrifies them, incites primal fear in gamers. He takes this so seriously that few have an actual chance against him.

The German watched the monster from his couch by the door. To the untrained eye it didn't appear that Wolf was any different. He still dressed the same, bickered with Neil, and had a nosebleed whenever Felicity came into contact with him, but he developed slight mannerisms Krieg picked up on.

Wolf couldn't keep a straight face. His lips were constantly alternating between a taught line and a toothy sneer, if for only the briefest moment. What little muscle he had was always tense, like a coiled snake ready to strike. His eyes would dart across the room in erratic patterns, only locking onto the eyes of his enemies, or Felicity as hormones seemingly trump blood lust, or are incredibly connected.

"So what should we do next?" Neil asked, startling Krieg from his thoughts. Krieg arose from the couch and walked to the bar, standing next to Neil, who was the sanest of the three.

"I'm in the mood for some TDM." Felicity purred, stretching her arms over the bar and delighting in Wolf's abject staring.

He nodded, managing to look somewhat professional, "Sounds good to me."

"Then lead the way, yanks."

"Ja."

Felicity began to fiddle with her tacpad, ending the game and morphing the world back into the pregame lobby. She then took point out the door, with Wolf, Neil, and Krieg following in that order. The group reached a lobby that was half full.

Wolf looked to the table with the map's 3D projection. "We're heading to Raid," he said before the game began.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::

The group spawned on the south side where the A-Flag would be in domination. Wolf slammed a fresh mag into his AN-94, which was followed by a chorus of three other guns loading.

Wait. Three guns?

The group collectively turned to find a new guy at the back. He had a gold MP7 and was in the default Mercenary SMG skin, so he probably didn't want to show his real face, which is a common practice among players because you have no idea what kind of people play these games.

"Umm, hi?" He raised his hand in greeting, perturbed by the rest of his team staring at him. "Something wrong?"

Wolf shook his head dismissively. "No, we are just used to the four of us. I'm Wolf, the Brit is Neil, Fluffy is the German," Krieg muttered something guttural in German ", and the one aiming a ballistic knife at your balls is Felicity." Said knife wielder huffed in disappointment and lowered her blade.

"I'm DJ Pon3, pronounced pwn three, not pawn three."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: COOLEST NAME EVER, BRONY!**

"Could we call you DJ? It's faster and the match will be over quickly." DJ nodded at Wolf. "Good. Since you have a golden gun, I'll assume you're decent at this game, so do what you can to stay alive and we'll all leave this game happy."

The countdown to the game's start ended, so the team made for the kitchen, with Wolf and Krieg taking point. Neil sidled up against the room's supporting column and aimed down the firing lane.

An enemy popped his head from the patio prematurely, as though a gopher looking for his shadow.

"I got this one." Neil drew in a breath to steady his aim before pulling the trigger. The bullet went down range in the blink of an eye, which would have been sufficient to kill anyone under normal circumstances, if not for the mass disconnect.

"Son of a bitch!" Wolf cursed, being pulled from the game along with his team and tossed into a black void. Orange letters appeared in front of them telling the assembled players there was a host migration.

"Did that guy quit before I could kill him?" Neil asked.

"Looks like it, but that means his team will be even weaker when we get back in. Be ready to drop the next scrub that turns the corner." The orange text blinked out of existence. "Looks like we are done waiting. Get ready for them to charge us."

The ground formed first, pixel by pixel. Then depth was added, stairs being etched into the land and gentle slopes rolling through the earth. Walls and ceilings arose from the floor, which was then followed by the miscellaneous items like chairs, paintings, and assorted decorations. Finally the textures loaded, but that wasn't a really dramatic process.

"What the Hell?" The group spawned back in, but found themselves moved out of the kitchen and onto the closest side of the rock garden from where they were before. Wolf ducked behind the chest high wall and motioned for the others to do the same. "Why did we move?"

"We did that." A gruff voice called from across the way at the enemy spawn. "And can you please get out from there? It's rude to not look at someone when they talk to you."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: DAMN KIDS THESE DAYS!**

Neil leaned closer to Wolf. "I think we should do it."

"What?! You want to get your head blown off?"

It was then Felicity tapped his shoulder, causing him to clumsily turn while crouched. "This cover is thin as it, so they could kill us at any time. Also, a single grenade or semtex could blow us to smithereens."

"So we go for diplomacy?" Felicity nodded. "Damn it all."

Begrudgingly Wolf rose, followed by Felicity, Neil, Krieg and after a long period of hesitation DJ.

Wolf held his rifle limply at his side to seem less threatening, although his pissed off expression made those attempts moot. "Alright what do you wa-"

What they were facing was not a normal team, unless they came from a cosplay convention. The one who spoke before was in full brown and bronze body armor, minus his head which was only protected by a large metal collar, that wouldn't look out of place in an old Doom game. He had short gray hair, due to his age which looked to be at least the late fifties, as well as a goatee and an eye patch over his right eye.

To his left was a bald man in a green bomb disposal suit, and like the lead guy, he didn't wear a helmet. Why you would wear the bomb disposal gear and not a helmet is something Wolf found confusing and idiotic.

To the far left was another old man with equally gray hair, except his was longer and tied together about an inch before the end, with the bundle thrown over his shoulder. He wore a brown suit, with white undershirt and red tie tucked under the suit. The oldster had a bandolier across his chest and waist, as well as holster at his waist, under an armpit, and Wolf had a sneaking suspicion there was another on his back. In each holster was a revolver, so Wolf didn't think he'd be much of a threat seeing as the only revolver in Black Ops 2 was horrible.

To the right of the first guy was shirtless man with black pants and suspenders. His hair was equally black and slicked back down his neck. He was looking the group over with a predatory hunger in his eyes while he twirled a knife between his fingers.

The final enemy was a woman, skin a light chocolate that contrasted her wispy blonde hair with one lock going down the front of her face. She wore a black leotard with the words NAVY along the collar and had a coat over her shoulders. She was the only one holding an actual gun, being a-

"That's a Storm PSR!" Krieg and Wolf lunged over the edge with their fingers pointed at the futuristic weapon the taken aback woman held. "How is that in the game?!"

"I thought it was obvious by their fake character models." Neil quipped with no small amount of smugness.

Well, there was a chance they weren't fake models and that they were dressed like that, but you'd have to be one eccentric individual to do so. It's an uncommon practice that some people will hack the game in order to appear differently, mainly for kids to look older without using the default game appearances, or for pedophiles to look younger and stalk the many kids playing Call of Duty.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: IT'S THE CIRCLE OF LIFE~**

DJ cracked his own grin. "Or when we were all moved during the host migration. They're hackers"

"Alright, don't push it." Wolf growled, pulling himself back off the wall and glaring across the garden. "Oi, hackers! What do you want?"

"Straight to the point." The armored old guy in the middle said. "I like it. You see, we are the clan-for-hire, Dead Cell, and today appears to be your unlucky day."

"For hire?" Felicity asked. "So someone paid you guys to attack us?"

"Yes, and don't bother asking who it was. Blabbing to targets is bad for business." He turned to the bald man beside him. "I don't feel like wasting time, so you can handle this, Fatman."

Fatman reached into on his suits many pouches and pulled out a block of C4. "Time to create some art!" He threw it into the center of the rock garden and, once it had landed, reached down to pick up a fruity red drink he had left on the low wall separating him from the garden before taking a long sip through a swirly straw.

"I know C4 makes a big bang, but it can't hit us from there!" Wolf shouted at them.

"Wolf?"

"Yeah, Krieg."

"Check your HUD."

Wolf didn't know what he meant to look for. Everything was normal. Weapon readouts, ammo count, minimap, nuke timer, scoreboard- wait, nuke timer?

"Oh shit."

Fatman finished his drink as the timer hit twenty seconds and promptly smashed it across the ground. "I was so upset when they took out that lovely killstreak, so I went back to MW2 and brought it back with me."

In his sudden panic, Wolf raised his rifle to shoot the explosive, but Neil forced the barrel back down with his hand. "Don't bother. If you shoot, it'll go off prematurely."

"Then I'll shoot its owner!" Shoving Neil aside Wolf raised his AN and put three two round bursts across the garden and hit the mad bomber square in the chest, staggering him backwards till he fell to the ground and out sight.

"The bomb's not going away, Wolf." Neil pointed out.

Wolf turned to his critic and glared at him. "There's no way he could have survived that."

As though it was done out pure spite, Fatman pulled himself off the ground by the wall and chortled at them. "Tis but a flesh wound."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: BEWARE THE BUNNY UNLESS THEE HOLD THE HOLY GRENADE!**

The clock hit five seconds, signaling the end to the match before it even had a chance to begin.

Neil and Felicity hung their heads in resignation.

Four seconds.

Wolf continued to empty rounds into Fatman, with no positive result.

Three Seconds.

Krieg was messaging his number to the woman, who turned her nose up in derision.

Two seconds.

"Oh for the love of all that is Brony!"

As the bomb hit the final second, it stopped and sputtered out in a burst of sparks, rendering it harmless. The group looked about in confusion, until they settled upon the Black Hat in DJ's outstretched hand.

"Seriously guys? If anyone had a fricken flashbang we would have been golden, but you didn't even think of using something with more finesse than a bullet."

Across the way, Fatman's chortling had died down, replaced with an insane sneer. "Looks like this will be fun. I'll be handling the brat with the Black Hat, so the rest are up to you~" And with that, Fatman slid, as in he was wearing roller skates of all things, across the ground and towards the garage where his team would normally spawn.

The hacker with the revolvers hiked his thumb over his shoulder towards where Fatman went. "Get going kid."

DJ looked at the ponytailed oldster dubiously, until another nuke timer appeared and he was forced to sprint across the garden to get to the garage in time.

Felicity vaulted over the low wall and into the rock garden with her knives at the ready. "I call the tin can. You guys divvy up the rest."

Krieg checked his FAL one last time before cracking his knuckles. "I'll take on the lady."

"No," Neil admonished "you're chivalry aside, she has a futuristic sniper and I'm the group's designated marksman, so I should handle her."

Said woman was pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration while the shirtless man rubbed her back consolingly. _If you didn't want men doing this you should have worn pants, _Wolf thought.

Krieg and Neil looked fired up and ready to keep arguing, so Wolf was forced to be the mature one. "I'll be defeating her. You guys deal with the rest."

The woman and Wolf went to the right, towards the B-Flag and large sculpture, while Neil stared at her ass and Krieg was forced to slap him.

"I guess I'll take the pistol loving oldster." Neil grumbled, heading back towards the kitchen.

"They're revolvers." The well-dressed hacker grumbled as well, passing Krieg by without a parting glance.

"I've never tasted the blood of an albino before." The remaining hacker said, already stalking towards the stairs on Krieg's left that led to the pool.

"So what's your shtick?" Krieg asked his opponent, to which he hissed at him and revealed a set of very sharp teeth.

The albino moaned. "Vampire?"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"Well it's a bit overplayed by you Americans, isn't it?"

"I'm Romanian."

Krieg, now at the edge of the pool, faced his enemy with unconcealed glee.

"Now this will be interesting."

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**Author: Not really. I see this story only having two, at most three chapters. I've gotten SO bored as of late. **

**Krieg: Asshole. I'm getting canned again, aren't I?**

**Wolf: So am I!**

**Neil: Me too!**

**Felicity: I'm the reason he's gotten bored, so I'll be fine.**

**Author: Sorry guys. I honestly intended for some more epic battles, weird hacker abilities, massive conspiracies, and a throwback to MW2, but at this point I can't be bothered. This won't really change the ending I had planned, just the context so it would go from something unexpected to something you are probably all expect. Hopefully I can squeeze out some more humor for the final few chapters.**

**P.S. UglyTurnip is the owner of DJ. He has the rights, as does every viewer who submits OCs to this story, to use the characters in stories of their own or give to other authors. **


	7. Glitch in the System Part 2

**Wolf: …**

**Krieg: …**

**Neil: …**

**Author: What?**

**Felicity: Ignore them. Let's get to the chapter.**

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"Now this will be interesting."

The albino fired two shots in the vampire's direction, aiming for his signature nut shot.

To his chagrin the Romanian side stepped the bullets. "The names Vamp, by the way."

"Krieg, but now is not the time for civility!" Looking down the sights, Krieg fanned the hammer, spraying bullets in Vamp's direction. Yet, whenever they seemed about to hit the target, he would move to the side. "You have god mode, don't you?"

"No," he brushed imaginary dirt off his shoulder, "none of us use that crap. My hack is simple really. I have reduced the delay between when I think and when my character moves, while also maxing out my controller sensitivity and increasing movement speed. Simple."

"You do know I would have had almost no chance of beating you if you didn't describe all your abilities, ja?"

"Where would the fun be in that?" Without another word Vamp threw his knife straight for Krieg's head.

Twisting to the side he barely avoided becoming a unicorn but felt his morning stubble get a close shave. He returned to his firing position to find Vamp gone and got the sneaking suspicion pain was imminent.

Gloved fingers knotted through his hair and slammed him to the ground. Krieg groped behind him till he found Vamp's hand and tried to pry the fingers loose as he felt himself be dragged backwards.

"I wonder how long you can hold your breath." The Romanian lifted Krieg off the ground to look him in the eyes, then slammed him face first into the pool. "The average person can hold their breath for two minutes, so I hope you are certainly more than average."

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"Is that all you have, Solidus? I expected more from a Doom Guy wannabe!" Felicity cackled, catching the twin katanas of her elderly enemy with her knives.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: HIS NAME IS FLYNN TAGGART!**

"Really, Doom jokes?" Solidus pulled his swords back and delivered a round house kick to the ginger's ribs. She was flung into the wall by the force of the blow, but managed to stay upright. "I expected more of the infamous No-Life Queen, Felicity Ira!"

The ginger snarled and shot a ballistic blade which Solidus easily swatted out of the air, but left him open enough for Felicity to slam her fist in his gut. The oldster bent forward as the air left his lungs, but Felicity gave him no respite. Raising her hands above her head she then slammed them down and struck Solidus with a double pommel bash to the spine.

"You should know it's not nice to use someone's real name online." She whispered into his ear as he hit the ground. "Who knows what kind of predators are listening~"

She flipped the knives in her hands so they were held back handed and stabbed downward, but their target rolled to the side and sprung to his feet. "The only predator here is you!"

"And? At this point I take that as a compliment." Felicity lunged forward with both knives bared. Solidus met her charge and pushed her blades to the side with his own, but before he could capitalize on the moment Felicity dropped the ballistic and grabbed a shock charge on her waist. Not having the time to throw it, she pressed a button on the device to automatically detonate it and electrocuted herself along with Solidus.

"Aagh!" Both fell to the ground with a cry of pain, albeit the man in the metal suit felt it acutely more. The two spasmed on the ground, kicking up dust that irritated their lungs and blinded their eyes.

The shock charge ceased its assault, allowing them to finally catch their breath. Both looked up from the ground and glared at each other before settling their eyes on the ballistic knife in between them.

"Are we really doing this action movie shit?" Solidus groaned, already tensing his muscles to throw his entire weight towards the blade.

"Today's a good day to die hard."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: RIP JOHN MCLAIN!**

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"That would be an S, boy. You're now a HORS."

"You've been a HORS since this started, Ocelot."

"Talks cheap, just take the shot."

"Be ready to eat those words."

Neil crouched, lined up his B23R, and squeezed off a short burst. It hit the target, sending it soaring into the air, and then sinking into the net at the other end of the basketball court.

The oldster with the revolvers, Ocelot, frowned. "Lucky shot."

Neil snickered and stepped aside so Ocelot could shoot the next basketball atop the raised platform. Pulling out his backup revolver he spun it on his finger back, then forth, before shooting the next ball into the hoop.

"Your turn, boy." So Ocelot stepped to the side and let Neil shoot, then Neil did the same for Ocelot, stopping every once in a while to reset the balls.

Ten rounds later and they were still tied, as well as sharing a similar problem.

"I'm out." Neil let the empty magazine of his handgun drop to the court. "You?"

"The same." Ocelot holstered his empty revolver, which wasn't an executioner but a .357.

"Well we need a tie breaker."

The oldster let out a hearty laugh and allowed a very conniving smile spread across his features. "I have the perfect idea."

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"I don't suppose I can convince you to stop shooting?!" Wolf shouted from behind the stone support column of the sculpture over the sound of a PSR assailing it.

"No," The woman, Fortune, replied from her position in the laundry room window to the south, "now come at me!"

Rolling his eyes, Wolf broke cover, running to the flaming wreck of a van towards the edge of the map. As he ran, and the ground inches away from him exploded in a shower of dirt and asphalt, Wolf sprayed the window where Fortune sniped from one handed with his rifle.

But even if that was horribly inaccurate, what few bullets that should have hit her never had a chance. Every bullet that showed even the slightest inclination of so much as ruffling her hair would curve around her. Wolf tried throwing semtex, but it wholeheartedly refused to go off and did no damage to her, although the plastic explosive stuck to her thigh served to _really_ piss her off. Once she peeled it off she started firing more often and charging her shots less, so it didn't have the penetrating power of the campaign, but was still deadly.

Feeling one shot get dangerously close, Wolf dove the final few feet and came crashing down behind the van.

"Stop hiding and shoot me you coward!" Fortune shouted, ceasing her barrage momentarily to allow sound to travel undisturbed.

"You want me to shoot you?" Wolf almost poked out of cover to directly address her, only stopping when a bullet struck the vans hood. "I'll gladly do it if you turn off that bullet hack!"

For the longest time since they started fighting, Fortune stopped shooting. "I would if I could, but I didn't do this."

"You didn't do what?"

"I'm not a hacker, I'm the hackee!" She screamed, the words catching in her throat and coming out in broken sobs. "You think I want this? I can't play with normal people without being called a hacker, can't change my loadout's primary weapon without it automatically becoming a PSR, and no matter what people throw at me I can't die!"

Her cries died down as she reeled herself under control. "Even after I changed accounts, and got a new console, the hacks keep coming after me. But despite all that, I found people who would accept me. So if for nothing else, I will fight for the sake of Dead Cell and the friends who make it all worthwhile!"

A static buzz filled the air as she charged her PSR for a shot at full power.

Wolf poked his head out of cover as she was about to fire. "Oh fuck."

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"One minute and thirty seconds," Vamp looked at an imaginary watch on his free arm's wrist, while the other kept Krieg underwater, "You're doing good so far, but can we speed this up?"

_Screw you too_, Krieg thought, doing his best to keep his breathing under control lest he burn through what little air he had left. He stopped trying to pry Vamp's hand from his hair and instead fumbled with his pockets, looking for anything he could use to free himself.

_Trophy System? Won't help me here._

_Knife? He reacts to fast, even without all this water slowing me down._

_Sidearm? For once I wish I used a damn Unlock Token to get one._

_That leaves only option left. Time to use my FAL, but if he sees me point it at him he'll just finish me off early, so I need to shoot him without him seeing. Ugh, this must be Karma for all the nut shots._

Fiddling with his rifle until it was under and pointed towards himself, Krieg counted to three and pulled the trigger. Blasting forth from the chamber, a single bullet went through Krieg's family jewels, out the back, and into the shoulder of Vamp.

Rather than releasing the albino and reeling back in pain, the Romanian slammed Krieg farther into the water until his face was scratched by the pools bottom and the rifle was caught under him.

Vamp laughed as his and Krieg's wounds healed and he placed his knife on the nape of Krieg's neck. "It was a nice attempt, and if your muscles didn't choreograph your actions I might have been surprised enough to release you, but unfortunately for you I was well prepared for your attempt on my life. Now prepare to-"

Suddenly the pressure holding the albino disappeared, hand and all. Seizing the moment Krieg pushed off the pool's bottom with the pads of his fingers and surfaced as spots filled the corners of his vision.

The artificial sunlight was blinding, and he would even go so far as to say it hurt, but oh was it glorious after nearly drowning and shooting oneself in the balls. "The pain of life, how I missed you so!"

"What are you doing? Get out of the water already!" DJ yelled from dry land.

Krieg grabbed his drenched rifle and scrambled out of the pool towards the bar. When he felt he was a safe distance from any H2O, he turned and found, to his surprise and mirth, Fatman fallen atop of Vamp and wildly flailing his arms as he tried to right himself.

DJ stomped onto the mad bomber's back, keeping him pinned as he pried another campaign weapon from his fingers. "A Titus! I loved this explosive flinging weapon. It was like a noob tube on steroids that doubled as a shotgun. Hey," DJ put the burst fire weapon to Fatman's temple, "If I get you in the head, will your suit still protect you?"

"Let's test that theory of yours." Krieg reached across the bar, grabbed the first bottle he could find and emptied its contents over his head to get the smell of chlorine out of his nostrils. When he was satisfied with the smell of Tokay, he folded his arms and leaned against the bar. "And I don't think you'll be able to dodge this one, you Romanian SOB."

"God damn it Fatman!" Vamp fumed under the tub of lard and Kevlar. "What happened?"

"I tripped," said tub of lard and Kevlar responded, "I never expected this guy could simultaneously defuse my nukes and shoot the wheels of my skates as I rode by!"

"Why bring him towards me without a heads up?"

"I ran out of hiding places in the garage."

Krieg brought a thumb to his throat and made a slashing motion with it. DJ nodded in understanding and fired three three-round bursts into the back of Fatman's skull, killing him instantly. The brony let the hacked weapon fall onto its former owner and quickly backpedaled out of the blast radius as the Titus rounds ripped Fatman and Vamp apart, or at least as much as the EA censors allowed which meant they went ragdoll in the air before landing with a splash in the tub, coincidently in a position that was reminiscent of 69ing,

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: WHAT? DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT! IT HAPPENS!**

The albino nodded appreciatively at their limp corpses. "I couldn't have done better myself."

"I'm sure you would have gotten out eventually." DJ reassured, joining Krieg in leaning against the bar. "Should we go help the others?"

"Normally I'd say ja," Krieg grabbed another bottle from behind the bar and broke its neck on the bar itself, "but I think we handled the hard ones ourselves, so they'll be fine."

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"Why did I get the hard one?" Neil snorted, blowing the white powder from under his nose into the air.

"Dude," Ocelot said without looking up from the lines of coke he was cutting on the table before him, "If I can snort this entire line, you have to make me a sandwich."

Neil laughed at the oldster and placed a brick of a white substance with a scorpion logo on top onto the table. "Screw the line, do an entire brick!"

"Oh you are on!" Ocelot tore off the plastic wrapper, paused for dramatic effect, then fell forward face first into the brick.

About a minute later the brick was gone and Ocelot's face was whiter than his graying hair. "Now go get me that sandwich."

"A deal's a deal." The Brit dusted off his pants and left towards the kitchen.

Two minutes later Neil held a loaf of bread through the doorway. "Here, take it."

"Why can't you bring it over?" The old man whined.

"Just take the sandwich!"

The oldster pushed himself off the couch, cursing under his breath when he bumped against the table. He had to keep a hand along the wall as he walked, or hobbled, across the room. When he has within reach of the bread, it jerked back into the kitchen.

"Hey," Ocelot grumbled as he turned the corner in pursuit of bread, "what are you trying to pull?"

"The trigger."

A boom thundered throughout the room, and also the loaf. Ocelot dropped to the ground with crumbs covering his suit. Neil lowered his DSR 50 and plucked the remains of the loaf he stuck onto the barrel of his sniper onto the floor.

"Bon appetite~"

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: BETRAYING THE BETRAYER**

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"Oh fuck!" Fortune shot the van that served as Wolf's cover, causing it to erupt into a ball of flame and twisted metal.

Thrown clear of the blast, Wolf scrabbled across the ground until he was behind a concrete protrusion. Fortune resumed her barrage with renewed vigor, loosening chunks of gray rock and kicking up dust.

When he was satisfied that he was momentarily safe, Wolf held his AN-94 over his cover and fired, only for a shot that could have no way been intentional hit his rifle and left a smoking hole through it.

"You know what?" Wolf dropped the useless piece of metal to the floor. "I'm going to do you a solid and kill you myself!"

Drawing his knife, he ran from out of cover back in the direction of the van. Fortune saw this and aimed for where he slid into cover before, but Wolf wasn't sliding anymore. He jumped onto the vans hood and in another step he was on the roof.

While Wolf sprinted across the roof, Fortune had to stop to reload and growl at him. "You couldn't do it if you tried! No one can do it!"

Gritting his teeth Wolf leapt from the van as another bullet hit where he stood not seconds ago. He curled into a ball as he sailed through the air, adrenaline pumping through his veins from the artificial exhilaration.

Just as he seemed about to smash into the planter below the window where Fortune shot from, Wolf shot his legs out, kicking off the planter, and launched himself upwards enough that he went through the window and delivered a flying kick to the hackee.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: FLYING TIGER KNEE!**

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: I DON'T GET MY OWN REFERENCE!**

The two tumbled to the ground with Wolf on top. He thrust his arm against her throat while he positioned his knife above her heart.

"How?" Fortune asked, eyes darting between her PSR across the floor and the man atop her. "How did you do this?"

"I tried."

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Felicity sat with her legs crossed in the middle of the rock garden, picking her teeth with her bloody knife. She looked up from the blood stains and discarded shock charge on the ground as Wolf approached.

"Ah, the hero has returned!" She cheered, throwing her hands into the air and falling onto her back, laughing. "I had my doubts, but you really did manage to beat the best the common hacker had to offer! Bravo~"

He sighed and vaulted the low wall to the garden below. "It was certainly a tough fight."

Felicity jumped to her feet, making Wolf jump in surprise. "How would you like more?"

Before he could respond, Krieg and DJ stumbled up the steps from the west and leaned against the dividing wall.

"Yo," DJ raised a hand in greeting, "I think we got all of them!"

The ginger spun around and scowled. "You're still alive?"

"Ye-"

Felicity hit a button on her tacpad and an instant later DJ was disconnected from the game, "Much better." She turned back towards to Wolf, ignoring the string of expletives Krieg was letting out, and put a finger under his chin. "Now I have a proposition for you."

Blushing madly from the physical contact, Wolf stuttered, "Pr-prop-proposition?"

"I'd like for you to join a clan of real hackers, actually we prefer being called Controllers, nothing like this Dead Cell rabble, but people with real power! If you join me, you can win every match and be a god! We determine everything, from who gets matched with who in matchmaking, how fast you are allowed to level, and can even control the latency of matches! You can have all of this, and more, if you join Lodestar."

"I…would never lose?"

Felicity's finger trailed up Wolf's jawbone until she was cupping his face, "Never."

It was like a distant light in a raging sea had appeared before a storm-tossed sailor, promising him the salvation he had searched for so fervently with the zeal of a crusader in his holy land.

He wanted it.

He killed for it.

He earned it.

Wolf felt his hand rising to clasp Felicity's, the words she was almost begging him to say forming on his lips, but an incredibly German cloud obstructed his beacon of hope.

A cloud in the shape of a fist.

"Wake up!" said fist struck Wolf right on the nose and knocked him to the floor before grabbing Felicity and throwing her to the side.

Krieg dropped to his knees on top of the fallen blonde and grabbed him by his collar. "Can't you hear what she is saying? She wants you to join a fucking group of hackers so you can cheat your way to victory! Will that make you feel like a badass?"

In a flash of anger Wolf grabbed Krieg's coat and pulled himself closer. "Well what else can I do? I'm not a Call of Duty genius like you guys! I couldn't get a positive K/D until you and Neil showed up, and when Felicity showed me how to play I started to be able to stand on my own. Why can't I be allowed to win? Why?!"

"Because if you win every match you have, someone else has to lose every match they have with you." The albino's eyes softened a bit as he reared his head back. "You say you used to lose a lot, so ask yourself if you are ready to inflict that pain on others!"

Without giving his captive time to respond, Krieg smashed his head into Wolf's. The blonde fell back, now free of the German's grasp, and bounced off the ground before lying still.

"Damn it, Fluffy!" Krieg looked to where Felicity had fallen and saw she was shaking the stars out of her eyes. "Why did you have to screw this up?"

She began to fumble for a button on her tacpad. Fearing he would be disconnected like DJ, Krieg lunged across the garden and pinned Felicity with her arms behind her back.

"I thought you were all for woman's rights and what not?" She spat from under his weight.

"Oh shut up. You're more like a vampire, a leech, then an actual human, and I refuse to let you turn Wolf into a monster."

With her being facedown there was no way for Krieg to see the truly insane smile going ear to ear on her face. Seriously, it was like Soul Eater kind of crazy. "We'll see when he wakes up then, won't we?"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::

Wolf would be lying if he said this was his first Call of Duty dream, and this certainly wasn't his first Call of Duty nightmare.

It was the original Black Ops, Wolf's second Call of Duty after he immediately fell in love with Modern Warfare 2. This was a time when he was still complaining that shotguns weren't secondary weapons, machine pistols weren't available, his beloved akimbo Vector SMGs were nowhere to be seen, and three of the four LMGs had the clips of assault rifles.

He also enjoyed the game, not yet as jaded by years of defeat and humiliation.

But this was the match were all that changed. The game was Demolition on Jungle, and Wolf was trying to complete a daily contract for planting the bomb while using the flak jacket perk.

Everything was good for the first few minutes; Wolf's M60 was smoking after securing some early kills, and he was already at the bomb site and planting. When he finished however, the shit hit the fan.

While he observed that he completed the contract he came here for, a player with a golden Famas came up behind him and killed him.

Wolf spawned in the flat, open marsh grounds near the snipers perch on the south of the map. He didn't even have a chance to run for cover before a chopper gunner was called in and gunned him down, along with the rest of his team that spawned there.

When he next spawned, he was in the exact same place, and so was the rest of his team. Some tried to run towards the burnt out village, others towards the rocky outcropping that was the snipers perch, but all were cut down by sentry guns placed in the hut that overlooked the flat land, as well as the chopper gunner above.

After a few more team wipes, attack dogs were called in, so those that could run for cover were driven out, and every time they died they would spawn in the exact same place.

No one had the chance to fight back. No one even saw the enemy after the first minute, just the spray of dirt and mud kicked into their faces when sentry guns streaked the ground, the surge of water that rose into the air as a chopper gunner bombarded the earth, and the gleaming teeth of a German Shepard just before it latched onto player's jugulars.

This was the fate of all in attendance to this grim and awesome display of power. The enemy didn't even have to watch their macabre play of death, they simply stood and observed from the maps other spawn points, ensuring no one else would spawn anywhere but the killing floor.

Eventually it turned into a blur of flailing limbs and disembodied screams. Everything blended together until one death was no different from another.

Wolf cowered beneath a wooden platform, the one leading to the encampment to the east, too afraid to enter the open and climb the ladder out of the kill box. His hands shook, barely keeping his LMG trained in front of him. All he could was think; entrap himself further within his own mind.

How can this happen? Can we even fight back? Why would they do this?

The answers were simple.

They were an organized clan of fully prestiged clansman.

There was no chance of fighting back.

They wanted to win.

These revelations offered him no comfort. Actually, it made him feel empty somehow, like something was taken from him and he didn't know how to get it back. He didn't have time to think on it more when a dog came through the brush and latched onto his ankle. He found himself being dragged into the open until the dog let go and went to attack a more active victim.

Now freed, Wolf remained on the ground, not playing dead, just laying there. The chopper gunner spotted him, and he spotted it. Despite the distance they locked eyes, and for a brief moment all Wolf knew in the world were the emerald eyes of his killer and a glimpse of red hair under a balaclava, even after they gunned him down.

Wolf spawned again in the field and couldn't find the strength to stand, so he fell to his knees. He couldn't find the strength to hold his gun, so he dropped it into the mud. His couldn't find the strength to keep his head held high, so he let it hang limply.

The game was over before they even armed a bomb. He was done, broken beyond repair and too hollow to fill. To quote Poe, "The Red Death held dominion over all."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::

"Grr..." He raised his hands to his throbbing cranium and slowly lifted himself off the floor. "Anyone catch the number of that car that me?"

"It wasn't a car."

Wolf lazily swung his head around until he found Krieg sitting atop Felicity and would have found it amusing if not for his dead serious expression.

"So are you ready to join Lodestar, Wolf?" Felicity asked, voice slightly labored under the albino's weight.

Krieg pressed the butt of his rifle harder against her neck. "Or have you come to your senses?"

Wolf stopped rubbing his temples and let his arms fall to his sides. Now he remembered. Felicity offered him the world and Krieg told him to forsake it.

"I could have it all, everything in this game?"

"Yes!" Felicity shouted.

"Rule above the masses and dominate everything? Never feel the agony of defeat? Could I be a god?"

"I can give you that power!"

"Wolf…" The albino warned.

"Shut up, Krieg." With his arms occupied with his rifle and Felicity, he couldn't do anything to shield himself from the flashbang Wolf threw at his face. He fell to the side, hands covering his blinded eyes while the others remained unharmed. Wolf extended a hand to Felicity which she readily accepted.

"I'm glad to see you made the right choice." She purred, slipping her arm behind the small of his back.

"Well I'm not." Krieg muttered from beneath them.

"You could join us too, Fluffy. You can do great things."

"He doesn't need your help, Felicity," Wolf's grip on her tightened to the point she squeaked in pain, "and neither do I."

She found her tacpad arm forced behind her back and was shoved to her knees. "What are you doing, Wolf?"

"You see," he drawled, "I would love nothing more than to stand upon the corpses of my enemies and be truly amazing at this game, but if that meant making more _trash_ like myself, I'd rather never win another game. What you offer isn't the way to become a better player, but a path to being a better monster."

"You're already a monster. The only thing you can do is go deeper!" Felicity seethed.

"I've been stagnant for two years now. I can rot in my hole without digging it deeper."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: LIVING WITH THE PHANTOM PAIN**

"You made the right choice, comrade." Krieg managed to recover from the flashbang, and after dusting himself off, stood beside Wolf and prodded the back of his captive's head with his rifle.

"It may be the right choice, but it's going to be Hell from here on out."

Felicity turned her head around to glare at the duo with her Medusa/Stein/ Crona mad smile. "Oh you have no idea."

Krieg poked her again. "What are you talk-"

He disappeared, well he disconnected, but same difference. The next thing Wolf knew he was flipped over Felicity and onto his back, affording him a nice inverted view of the one doing the flipping.

And behind her was Neil, his finger still on his tacpad.

"Sorry, Yank, but you really should have accepted her offer."

"Good job, Neil. I was afraid you were going to disappoint me again. Wouldn't want your _adorable _sister to run into another pervy kid with a shotgun, or myself." Felicity said while retrieving her knives and positioning them along Wolf's throat in an X-shape.

"As long as you keep Patty protected I'll keep up my end of the bargain." The Brit leaned against the far wall, next to the opening to the kitchen, content to remain silent and avoid eye contact with Wolf.

"Now," she leant down and whispered into Wolf's ear, "you have sorely hurt me by rejecting my offer, but for all the fun I had in training you I'll do you this one favor. You have twenty four hours to do whatever you want, play some multiplayer or zombies, whatever you want, but when that grace period is up, I will come for you, I will invade your matches, and I will break you."

"You already broke me once, so when you come at me, be sure to finish the job. Oh," Wolf let out a short chuckle and leaned forward till tiny trickles of blood went down his neck from where the knives dug into his skin, "and you look much better with the balaclava. I'm tired of seeing your face."

Now that seemed to upset her, as her smile morphed into a taut line of frustration, just before she slit his throat and disconnected him from the match.

"Come on, Neil. We need to rally the troops to put him down."

"You expecting a fight?"

"No, I'm expecting a war."

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**Author: Not going to lie, I actually enjoyed this chapter. Fun to write for the first time since chapter two.**

**Wolf: I'm suddenly feeling really good about myself. **

**Felicity: I feel as though the betrayal by me and Neil was expected though.**

**Author: I write fanfics, remember? If you want Dan Brown go find a real author. If you want stories where the writer has zero moral inhibitions, keep reading fanfics.**

**Krieg: I feel like a chump after this chapter…**

**Wolf: Cheer up! We have the final battle next. **

**Author: Oh, almost forgot we have big news coming up. While I may be done with this story after the next chapter, it will have a new author in Zigbon, one of our reviewers. Whether or not he continues the actual story with new characters, uses existing ones and mix in some of his own and your submitted ones, or just do one shot stories about individual matches. Either way it's going to be up to him…so send him your complaints and or dreams for the story's future, but wait till I actually finish and upload the next chapter because who knows who will be around when I'm through with putting down Old Yeller. **

**P.S. The story about the match in Jungle was 100% true. It's the reason I don't play objective game modes and have started hating all Call of Duty post Modern Warfare 2. The worst part was that I met one of the players the next day in school. **

**P.S.S. I'll be going on vacation for a week from the 12****th**** to the 19****th**** and won't be writing before then so you'll have to wait till after my vacation for me to even start writing. Sorry, but I'm not going to rush the final chapter lest I kill what mojo I have left.**


	8. Surprise MotherFcker!

**Author: Just a forewarning, but I know next to nothing about hacks and hackers, so I'm making this up as I go, except for one thing relating to Bungie's Halo games. That is true.**

**Wolf: Enjoy the chapter with little to no action!**

_::::: _

_Hijacked_

_:::::_

"On a scale of one to ten, how fucked are we?"

"Eleven."

Krieg sighed, taking another swig of his bourbon. "I was afraid you'd say that."

The remaining members of the group where on the second floor of the northern structure, with Wolf sitting at the desk and the albino leaning against the blown vaults door.

The blonde rocked back in the chair and knitted his fingers behind his head. It had already been an hour since Felicity delivered her ultimatum, and it was becoming abundantly clear that the end was approaching far quicker than they ever wished for.

Krieg eyed the blonde before him. Despite their impending doom, Wolf eyes held a steely determination the albino hadn't seen in him before. There was a fire in his muddy pools that contrasted his seemingly neutral scowl.

"You know," Wolf said, startling Krieg from his observations, "I'm not tired."

"You're not tired?"

The blondes chair slammed back onto all four legs, leveling Wolf's blazing gaze with Krieg's hazy red. "I've felt…exhausted for so long, like every day I'm just dragging myself through the motions. I try and I try, but I always find Call of Duty to be so draining."

"You're seventeen and you talk like you're fifty." Krieg deadpanned.

"And you're twenty nine and drunk before it's ten AM." Wolf shot back. "Anyway, what I'm saying is that for once I feel fired up! So what if Felicity and Neil were manipulating us? So what if they say we only have 23 hours left to live in Call of Duty? I don't give a rat's ass about what they say, I'm going to go out and kick some ass."

A humorless laugh came from the German. "That may be all well and good, but what can we do in this situation? Look at us!" His arms swept across the room. "We are alone, vastly outnumbered if what that psycho ginger said about her clan is true. Also, our enemies are hackers, and unlike Dead Cell they'll probably use God Mode on us or some other bullshit. All the courage in the world won't save you from that."

Wolf's face contorted as though he was fighting back a massive grin and his scowl was struggling to stay in place.

"So what you are saying is that, in order to have even the slightest chance against Lodestar's forces, we need to rally some people to our cause as well as finding a way around our enemy's hacks?"

"I don't think it's that simple-"

"Nope, I can do this." He reached down and began to vigorously text on his tacpad. Whenever Krieg asked him what he was doing Wolf would shush him, so he settled for nursing his drink till the texting frenzy ended.

Three bottles and another hour later, Wolf finally stopped and rubbed his near arthritic hand. "Done."

"Done with what?"

"I sent out a boatload of messages over forums and to people in my recent history list. Hopefully someone will lend a hand."

The drunkard's jaw hit the floor. "You didn't…"

"I did."

"Hypothetically, could you tell me what you think when someone screams Hacks in the middle of a match?"

"I roll my eyes and…oh." Wolf's face finally settled into a scowl. "I just ruined what little credibility I had on the net. Oh god I sounded like a fucking Bambi!"

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: FORGIVE ME FRANKIE!**

The fire in his eyes diminished with his wounded pride, making Krieg feel like an ass for raining on his parade. _We're probably never going to be able to play this game again once our time is up, so maybe I should have let him-_

"We got a response!" Leaping out of his chair with renewed vigor, the blonde dashed across the room and showed Krieg his tacpad.

He raised an eyebrow at the three new messages. "Well I'll be damned."

"Here," Wolf sent two messages to his partner with a few key strokes, "You go check out the first two while I see the other. If everything works out and we weren't just contacted by people who want to throw us a blanket party for screaming hacks, we'll have a nice five man team and stand a better chance against Felicity!"

Though the feeling they were still going to be brutally crushed under a sadistic ginger's sandals still lingered in the back of the German's mind, he couldn't help but feel reinvigorated by this turn of events.

"Let's get started."

:::::

_Aftermath_

_:::::_

Spawning into the private server, devoid of the conflict that plagues public matches, Wolf checked his tacpad one last time to read the message.

_If you are looking to take on Lodestar, you can't do it on your own with only a drunk for support. There's an invite below to my private server so get over here before you run out of time. You may have caused a splash in their network when you refused to join, but they will recover and crush you without hesitation if you aren't ready to take a stand. _

While it was nice to find someone with knowledge of what is going on, it was disturbing just how much they knew. Tightening the grip on his AN-94, Wolf tried to leave the shopping center serving as the eastern spawn as casually as his tense body allowed.

"Yo," his head snapped to the left root leading to a bathroom with its wall blown out where a female voice called to him, "you coming or not?"

Despite growing trepidation he followed the voice, powering up the dirt hill and across the squeaky bathroom floor.

In a torn up office, cramped and with only a few working computers, was a girl standing in the doorway to the middle of the map. She wore tight, black jeans and a purple tang top with a black hood, which was down. Her rich, russet hair cascaded down to her rump (Not that he was staring), with bangs to her shoulders that parted down the middle. Her eyes were like a Husky's, one viridian and other TARDIS blue like Wolf's bandanna. There was an empty holster strapped to her thigh.

In her biker gloved hands was a HAMR with red tiger camo, which was currently trained on him. "Slow your roll, dude. No need to be jumpy."

In response, Wolf took his finger off the trigger, but his eyes kept a hard edge to them. "You were the one who called me, and then you put a gun in my face? I think I'm not the only one who needs to calm down."

The brunette didn't shift her weapon in the slightest.

Sighing in resignation Wolf shouldered his rifle and started rooting around in his pockets.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Look, you're on edge, I'm on edge, so let's just take a minute to chill out and break bread, or in this case…" He pulled out a plastic bag from his back pocket and pulled out a cookie. "Chocolate chip peanut butter cookies."

"Gimme!" the girl lunged with the ferocity of a tiger, dropping her LMG and snatching the cookie from Wolf's outstretched hand. It was devoured faster than Wolf could pull out a cookie for himself. "Oh god that is a good cookie!" She mewled, eyeing the one the blonde was munching on.

"Carly! What did I tell you about lowering your guard?" Another female voice chastised from Wolf's left, towards the elevator shaft.

The cookie bandit glared at the newcomer playfully. "But Krysta, he had cookies. We both know Lodestar wouldn't go through the trouble of sending an assassin _and_ baking cookies. It's one or the other with them! "

"True, but that doesn't mean he isn't a threat."

Wolf held the bag of cookies towards where he assumed the woman holding him at gunpoint is. "I'm here to ask for your help, and you two seem to know a lot about what's going on. So _would you kindly _take the cookies and lower your weapons?"

"Grr," Wolf smirked when the bag was taken and a Kap 40 was tossed to Carly, "you win this time, Ryan."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MAN AND SLAVE?**

Now that he wasn't being threatened, Wolf looked over the second, and presumably lead, woman.

Her reddish brown hair was put up into a high ponytail and went down to her ankles, with bangs covering the left half of her face. He saw green eyes with hints of yellow when her glasses, tinted red, fell below the bridge of her nose due to her increasingly frantic chewing. She wore an incredibly tight black tang top (not that he was staring…again) with fishnet sleeves and faded bell bottom jeans as tight as her top (…maybe a little staring…). In terms of accessories she wore black biker gloves like Carly and had a scarlet silk ribbon tied loosely around her neck and going half way down her chest. Strapped to her back was a crossbow.

Okay, Wolf was going to need a shower after this because he feels like a total dirt bag.

"Alright," Krysta tossed the now empty bag aside and pushed her glasses back into place, "I assume you have questions for us." She motioned towards three chairs in the corner with the only working overhead light.

Finding himself hemmed into the corner by the girls, Wolf couldn't help but feel a nose bleed was imminent. "Umm, yeah. How do-"

"How do we know about what's been happening to you?" Carly chirped, brushing crumbs off her cheeks. "We've been keeping tabs on your group since you made contact with Fe- Her." She was going to say 'Felicity' but cut herself off before giving Krysta an indecipherable look.

Krysta patted her knee reassuringly and give her a small smile. "It's okay, you can say her name. If I can't even deal with her name then I won't have a chance at confronting her."

"I take it you two have history with Felicity and Lodestar." Wolf said.

Krysta nodded. "Carly and I used to be with Lodestar, but we had a falling out shortly after Felicity lead a coup and took control of Lodestar's North American branch. The power went to her head faster than any group that bases themselves off the army on an MMO. "

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: IT'S SAD HOW OFTEN THIS HAPPENS…**

"What did Felicity do that made you two leave?"

At this Krysta's cheeks turned a light shade of red and she turned to the side. Before she could recover, Carly stepped in.

"You see, after Felicity took over she started expanding Lodestar's control to dangerous levels, almost exposing the clan on several occasions, although she managed to cover up problems as they arouse. It used to be the worst hack we would use is the Demi God code." At Wolf's confused stare she elaborated. "It gives minute boosts to your base stats, like run speed, ammo count, decreased bullet spread, fire rate, reduced recoil, etc. The point is that it gives us an advantage over the average player, but is small enough to be confused for perks and attachments. Felicity herself furthered modified the code so it would allow her to use all perks simultaneously, even adding the stat benefits of most attachments to her ballistic knife."

"So you left because you thought she was going to get you guys exposed?"

"No, the hacks are undetectable because they are built into the game. Lodestar has members in both the Treyarch and Infinity Ward development teams, consenting and otherwise, who weave the hacks into the games structure. When Felicity came in she had her personal hacks added through patches. Have you ever noticed the game being extra laggy after a patch? That would be because they are testing their control of the game's latency. We didn't leave because we were afraid of being found out-"

"Carly." Krysta voice had a definite edge to it.

"What? We both know Felicity is going blab about it like some cartoony evil villain trying to tear us apart."

"Fine, but let me tell him." The red of Krysta's cheeks competed with that of her glasses. "The reason we left was not because we didn't condone Lodestar, actually it was the most fun we had in Call of Duty since our early days with COD 2. We left because Felicity and I had a bad break up."

"That psycho ginger was soooooo possessive," Carly deadpanned, "she wouldn't let anyone get near Krysta. She was even paranoid about me making a-Are you okay? Your nose is bleeding."

The geyser of blood originating from Wolf's nose trickled down his face and stained the collar of his shirt. "I-I'm…fine. Surprised, but…I'm sorry, but Felicity was gay?"

"Big time. Super Lesbian." Carly nudged Krysta as a mischievous drew across her features. "There was a time early in their romance when they couldn't keep their hands off each other."

Wolf almost fell out of his chair from the blood loss while Krysta berated Carly for her openness.

_I knew it,_ he thought wistfully, _every girl I show even the slightest interest in is either gay or beats the crap out of me, often both._

Pinching his nose and tilting his head back, Wolf did his best to summarize events.

"Alright, to get everything straight," that word caused physical pain, "you two are former hackers-"

"We still use the Demi God code so we aren't former hackers, as we still dabble in it." Krysta corrected.

Groaning, Wolf continued. "You two are hackers who used to be part of Lodestar, but left after Krysta had a bad break up with their current leader, Felicity. Lodestar employs hacks that are undetectable to the developer as they put it in, meaning we can't just go crying to them. Our enemy is thus nigh invincible and we are all fucked." That word was also painful.

"Who said we had no chance?" Krysta stopped play choking Carly and recovered from her earlier embarrassment. "If that was true Carly and I would've been driven out of Black Ops 2 months ago."

"I would have been kicked, but she would probably have kept you around," Carly snickered, "But she's right. It may sound difficult but you can take them on and win."

"How?!" Wolf almost screamed.

"It's simple, really," Krysta raised her tacpad and absentmindedly started typing a message, "to fight a raging fire you need another fire."

:::::

_Thirty Minutes Later_

:::::

"Can I take this blindfold off?"

"No, Wolf, not until we get there." Krysta rolled her eyes and continued to pull the blonde further down the metal hall, the same hall that was normally lined with busy servers but was barren of even a single door. It was just the two of them, Carly opting to go meet up with Krieg and anyone he could recruit. "The guy we are meeting is extremely paranoid, but trust me when I say that he will be the first person to help you take down Felicity."

She guided him further, the lighting along the ceiling growing sparser and less frequent until they were almost in complete darkness. There was a point that her mind began to make shapes of the darkness, creatures reaching out to her like some Lovecraftian nightmare given form, but she disregarded them with a dismissive snort. She knew there was nothing there; there never is anything in the dark. _It's just a security precaution,_ she reassured herself.

As though the universe was giving her confirmation, a dim red light blinked into existence to her right, illuminating the frame of a sealed door and a speaker beside it.

"Password." The speaker demanded.

Krysta released her charge's hand in order to cover his ears long enough to give the password, as it would be better for him the less he knows. "Clever Fox."

"Password accepted. Welcome back to the bar and watch out for the chair." It replied pleasantly, the door sliding open. Before Wolf could even question the chair comment Krysta yanked him to the side as a bar stool flew out the door and burst into splinters on other wall.

Wolf tore off his blindfold and peered inside to find his attacker. A brunette with long wavy hair, and wearing a suit with a red bow around her neck, was standing there with her body still mid throw but gradually relaxing. Behind her was a fully stocked bar, shelves lines with bottles further behind that, and doors flanking it on either side. The moderately sized room was wood from floor to ceiling and everywhere in-between.

Krysta didn't bother peering, instead boldly stepping inside and pulling Wolf with her. "Hey Catherine."

"Hey kid," the brunette responded with a thick of a French accent yet her English was perfect, "who's the guy? Don't tell me you've gone straight on us."

"No, I'm still Pan, and this is Wolf." She motioned to the speechless man, another trickle of blood going down his face. "We came to get help with our cat problem."

Catherine's eyes widened a fraction before settling into a scowl much like the one previously worn by Wolf. Turning on her heel she started towards the back wall and hopped over the bar. She reached underneath and seemed to fumble around for something, face scrunching in consternation, until a light chime rang through the air.

"The runt should be here in a second." Catherine said, not looking at either guest. "So what business do you have with us today, finally joining up with us again?"

"Maybe another time," Krysta waved her off and sat on one of the surviving bar stools, Wolf taking another, "but for now we need help to take on Felicity. She was trying to recruit this dude but he choose otherwise."

"Why not? Ethics?" The French woman asked in a bored tone.

"Intense self-loathing, actually," Wolf quipped, "possible masochism. I'm not entirely sure myself, but my motives won't do anything to stop Felicity from trying to gut me."

Catherine's eyes locked with Wolf's, giving him the feeling of a field mouse caught before a king cobra, even as she let out a raucous laugh. "You're a weird guy, you know that? Still, you have a point, and you have your priorities straight so you're alright in my books."

"Wow," Wolf got a pat on the back came from least aggressive woman in the room, "she doesn't normally take to men this quick. Took her over a year to get used to Lyle."

"Who said I got used to that bomber?" The French woman snorted.

"Is someone talking about me?" A crimson mop of hair poked out of the door to the left. It fully entered, revealing a young man with wire rim glasses, purple sweater, and white dress pants like Krieg's. "Oh, you brought a guest, Krysta. What do we owe the pleas-"

He couldn't finish as Catherine's arm shot across the bar, grabbed him by his throat, and threw him into the wall on the other side of the room. "HOW LONG WERE YOU EAVESDROPPING?!" She roared with sudden and monstrous rage.

Slumped against the wall and rubbing his sore vocal chords, Lyle cracked a goofy grin. "The entire time. I was waiting for the sound of you kicking someone's ass so I would know it's safe to come out, but imagine my surprise when none came."

Rage shifting immediately to something that could be misconstrued for femininity if from anyone else, Catherine clasped Krysta's hands in her own claws-Er, hands. "You don't see me as some barbaric Amazon who blindly wails on asshole men, do you, Dame?"

"Yes." Krysta and Lyle deadpanned, to which the bartender let her head bang against the bar. The upright two burst out into laughter, and Wolf would have joined if not for his fear of the 'barbaric Amazon'.

Just then the door to the right opened, and out came a man with a pot under one arm and a spoon that was scraping its bottom in the other. One could say he was the spitting image of Wolf, save for the oddly orange eyes of his hidden by blue tinted glasses, but growing up Wolf saw dozens of kids who looked almost exactly like him so it wasn't surprising. The only other aesthetic difference was that the man wore a long, brown trench with white, fur fringe over a bartender's vest and white shirt.

The man rested the pot on the bar and dropped the spoon inside. "So this is the man of hour, Felicity's most recent dupe." He spoke with a distinct Welsh accent that Wolf was only able to pick up on from the many days he spent re-watching Torchwood and Doctor Who.

"Hey," Krysta shot back while inspecting the pot's contents, "she got you too, Henry. At least Wolf told her off before it was too late, unlike you."

"He still fell for her straight act..." Henry gave an indignant huff while his cohorts snickered.

"I kept trying to tell you that chick was bent." Catherine sneered while reaching for the spoon in the pot, attempting to get what looked like mashed potatoes at the bottom.

Snatching the pot from the berserker Henry glared at her, "You think every woman is gay!"

"Excuse me," Krysta decided to real the conversation back on track, "but we're actually on a timetable here so we need to hurry."

Henry nodded in agreement and motioned Lyle to the bar. The ginger crossed the room and retrieved a laptop from beneath the bar before sitting next to Krysta and powering it up. "So what do you need?"

Krysta looked over lines of code that were indecipherable to Wolf, "We need protection from wall hacks, forced disconnects, lag switches, and any other hack that will instantly kill us. Also, we need countermeasures for God Mode, flight hacks, and anything that makes Felicity invincible."

Ceasing his typing Lyle turned to her with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "So you want…the Prometheus code?" Krysta nodded. "Oh my baby is going to get a test run!"

While Lyle resumed typing with vengeance, Wolf tapped Krysta to get her attention, "Can you explain what's going? What's the Prometheus code?"

"That, me boy," Henry began, "Is a countermeasure we made, if other hackers tried to challenge us, that is meant to be an all-inclusive package of hacks that counter hacks. Lyle named It after the Greek god who betrayed Olympus by giving fire to man. With this," he pointed to the laptop, "you have a chance to weather the night, but there's a risk as well."

"Yeah," Lyle took over, "for one, it also prevents you from using the hacks it targets, so because we ourselves really heavily on them, we never set Prometheus to counteract our mild stat boosting hacks or ones affecting the create-a-class system. Also, to keep Prometheus secret from all of Lodestar, it was never put into the game's base code through patches. So like how Prometheus was bound to a mountain for giving man fire, the person or persons who use Prometheus run the risk of being banned, albeit the risks aren't as great as those more flashy hacks."

"Is that even possible? Sounds farfetched to-"

Catherine lifted Wolf off his seat with one hand, but didn't throw him like Lyle. "We are the professionals here, so we don't want some schmuck who took one programming class in high school questioning us!"

Feeling the terrified male go limp in grip, she lowered Wolf back into his stool were he let out a yelp of fear. "It was two years, but I see your point. Will this be enough to get Felicity off my back?"

"Oh no." Henry sat atop the bar and looked at them over his shoulder, to Catherine's chagrin. "Prometheus will allow you to fight, but beating Felicity in a relatively fair fight only means you live till the next time she comes for you. What you need is a way to permanently knock out Felicity. Want to hear a story?" He didn't wait for a response. "Long ago there was a great game called Halo 3. Before it was officially released, the games multiplayer was leaked early. Now the people who couldn't wait for the games official released and played it were then banned from Halo 3 until the year 2999. About a year ago, before Felicity came to power, I had some of our more connected informants we no longer have access to dig up that old piece of code and repurposed it to use in a more versatile manner. I call it the Banhammer."

"Versatile?"

"It's connected to your knife, you see, so you can still have the hack active without banning everyone you kill as long as you use bullets and explosives, but…" Henry trailed off, rubbing his side like an old wound was bugging him. "But if you're primary weapon is a knife, like Felicity's is, then everyone you stab gets their account and console banned till 2999. In hindsight modifying the code so It banned you from the entire Call of Duty series across both developers rather than just Black Ops 2 was a bad idea."

"You think?!" Wolf snapped. "Wait, if her knife instantly bans people, then how am I not banned? She slit my throat last match".

"She probably turned the Banhammer off, giving you time to squirm before she ganks you." Krysta elaborated. "Also, she had to pretend to fight Dead Cell and it wouldn't be good for business to accidently ban the people she hires."

"You going to let us use these, right?" Krysta asked Henry, removing her glasses and giving both him and Catherine her best puppy dog eyes, resulting in fresh nosebleeds from the both of them.

After the French woman gave Henry a look that was both pleading and threatening, he sighed and gave them a toothy grin. "I have every intention of _lending _you Prometheus and Banhammer, but you need to give them back when you get Felicity banned, I'm talking to you Karly."

"When have I ever lied to you, Henry?"

A hint of bitterness seeped into voice but his grin didn't waver. "You could have warned us before she staged that coup and deposed us. You could have said you were dating her before she stabbed me in the back."

Krysta's playful façade rippled as a sudden surge of guilt rose up in her. "Well you didn't have to give her the Banhammer that she used to ban you with…and you got a new console and account so it's not like you can't play anymore."

Realization finally dawned on the admittedly slow Wolf. Getting out of his stool he gave Henry a glare with all the heat he could muster.

"I hate to interrupt you guys, but from what I've heard from this get together is that you all worked with Felicity, in Lodestar."

For some reason Henry found this amusing. "It's not that we worked with her and Krysta," he slid off the bar and turned to look Wolf in the eyes, "It's more like they worked _for_ us."

He raised a hand to his face and let out an exaggerated laugh. "Forgive me, but we haven't been properly introduced. This is Catherine Furie and that is Lyle Tan, my lieutenants and trusted friends. I am Henry Kashkin, the former leader of Lodestar's North American Branch, and I'm the only shot you have at staying in the game."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: FOR WHOM DOES THE BELL TOLL? THE BELL TOLLS FOR YOU!**

:::::

**Author: Forgive me for the delay, people. I wanted to do one big chapter, but it would require making you wait a few more weeks and I don't want to be cruel to you.**

**Felicity: Just hurry up so I can kill those wimps.**

**Henry: Holy crap I was used in an actual story. We haven't seen the light of day since last Thanksgiving.**

**Author: Sorry about that, but I felt nostalgic so I brought back my first three OCs, the Mercenaries. **

**Wolf: So next chapter is the finale?**

**Krieg: Ja, and It will be spectacular.**

**Author: I'll do my best to end it with a bang. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.**

**Submitted OCs:**

**Krysta – pointy22**

**Carly - ****NoLife-QueenCarly**

**P.S. If I didn't mention it before, Zigbon will be handling the sequel. Now that he's uploaded some short one shots and I've read them, I can gladly report that Multiplayer Chronicles is in good hands, perhaps even a better hands in terms of style than myself. I'm sure you'll enjoy.**

**If you don't remember Zigbon, he would be the reviewer who submitted Leo, Felicity's friend from chapter 5.**


	9. No More Respawns

**Author: So long people. It's been a rough ride, with my interest rising and falling in this story even since I finished chapter two, but hopefully you'll enjoy this long as hell finale. It's the second longest chapter I've ever written, which is odd because it only took a week.**

**Felicity: If you want more of me, go read Millennium's New Cat or Millennium's New Cat.**

**Author: NO PLUGGING! Anyway, the sequel will be done by Zigbon, so if there are characters you submitted to me but I never got around to using because I rushed the story, then you can resubmit them to him. **

**Wolf: Hope you enjoy my final chapter, and since there's no AN at the end I'd like to say it's been fun being beaten and abused for your enjoyment. Happy reading you sick f-**

**Author: DON'T PISS THEM OFF! The average reader spits venom when angered!**

**Krieg: This is off to a great start.**

**Neil: Yanks…no common sense.**

**Carly: Where are the cookies?**

**Author: *eating peanut butter Oreos* There are none, now ON WITH THE SHOW!**

:::::

"-I am Henry Kashkin, the former leader of Lodestar's North American Branch, and I'm the only shot you have at staying in the game."

Catherine grumbled something along the lines of 'flashy runt bastard' before continuing to polish a beer mug, more out of habit then the glass being dirty. "So what are you going to do now?"

Wolf could tell the statement was directed at him, but hadn't even recovered enough from Henry's revelation to close his agape mouth. After the combined snickering of Krysta and Lyle died down, he was able to formulate coherent speech. "What _can_ I do?"

"Too be honest, not much." Catherine pointed out. "You could make some unsupportable threat, call us monsters, sell us out to Felicity, but we would have to kill you if you do that last one."

"How about I pinch the bridge of my nose, order a Magners, and go along with this?"

While he pinched himself, Catherine poured him his cider. "Good call."

Thought the Frenchwoman relaxed, Henry raised a brow in confusion. "That's an odd reaction. You're okay with working with the ex-leader of the hackers who are trying to run you out of town?"

"Of course," Wolf pointed at Krysta, "If I had a problem with hackers in general I wouldn't have let her drag me here. You being the former leader of Lodestar-"

"Only North America and Great Britain actually." Henry corrected. "Lodestar is divided among continent, region, country, and state. I still have Great Britain, but Felicity took North America."

Biting back a growl via liquid courage, Wolf continued. "You being the former leader of Lodestar's North American branch isn't that much of a problem for me because from what I've heard from others, you didn't exercise your power as frequently as Felicity. I'm not disillusioned enough to believe that even if we take down all of Lodestar another group won't step up to take their place, so having a more restrained bunch like yourselves in charge is best for everyone."

"Logical…don't see that very often."

Satisfied that her charge wasn't going to try and leap across the bar to strangle Henry, Krysta coughed to get their attention. "Ahem, I assume you have terms regarding the loaning of your personal hacks."

"Yeah, but their simple." The Welshman walked around the bar and put an arm around Krysta and another across Wolf's shoulders. "You need to use Banhammer on both Felicity and her top lieutenant, Leo. You may not have seen him before, but he has certainly seen you. He's sort of the brains of Felicity's coup while she's the muscle, so we need them both gone. Once their banned, even if it's only till they get a fresh console, we'll have enough time to retake control of their network and establish MY DOMINANCE OVER ALL! HAHAHAHAHA-" Catherine backhanded the manically laughing hacker, and Lyle who joined in for no reason. "-I deserved that."

"You did." She deadpanned, already back to cleaning.

"So does that answer your question?"

Wolf, pinching his nose till the skin threatened to come off as he was starting to regret all this, finally let out a breath he had been holding for too long. "I'm fine with your terms. Give us the codes and I'll show you more than one way to skin a cat."

"Good to hear. Consider the hacks yours for the next twenty hours."

"But," Lyle interjected, "we should probably wait till you have your entire group together and on board with your suic- I mean daring mission."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: I WISH MY NAME WAS SHEPARD RIGHT NOW!**

Nodding in agreement, Wolf moved to message Krieg but Krysta stopped him. "I already called Carly. She'll lead him and whoever he rounded up here."

"So now we wait?"

"Yup!"

An awkward silence fell between them all as their business was on hold till Carly brought reinforcements.

"Soooo," Catherine drawled, "where's Miranda at, runt?"

Henry, now seated beside Lyle, felt his heart clench and eyes widen to the size of saucers. "Miranda? Who's Miranda?! I DON'T KNOW ANY MIRANDA!"

"What are you talking about? You're all over that German accommodator!"

"Damn it Catherine! We aren't making this a crossover fic so shut up and don't mention -Man characters!"

"But the author already took Saber, Gilgamesh, and Caster from Fate/Stay Night!"

Suddenly the Bar's wall to their left cracked across its entire length. Lyle whistled in surprise. "Looks like we broke the fourth wall."

"I got this." The Doctor walked into the bar, closed the crack with his sonic screwdriver, and then pulled out an old fog watch. "Could everyone please stare at the watch?" When all eyes were on the watch, he opened it. Gold steams of light flew from the audience's eyes and into the watch before they all fainted and fell to the floor, memories of the last minute and the crack in the wall erased.

Closing the watch and dropping it into his infinite pocket, the last Time Lord strode out of the bar with a spring in his step. "Now don't go breaking the fourth wall again~"

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: GOING WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE!**

:::::

Carly and Krieg entered Henry's bar, the former skipping to her close friend's side while the latter stayed by the door and eyed everyone suspiciously. "You want to explain what's going on?"

Since Wolf wasn't in the mood, head still hurting from the inexplicable nap he had taken on the floor, he waved the drunkard off and grunted for Krysta to explain the situation.

After explanations were given, jaws hit the floor, German and French curses exchanged, and beers were shared, Krieg finally settled down and stopped throttling the life out of Henry while his trusted friends cheered for German.

"I don't see any other way but to accept their offer, Wolf, so I'm in."

"While that's good and all," Carly chirped, somewhat upset she lost the pool on what color Henry would turn from Krieg chocking him, which Lyle won, "but what about your recruits in the hall?"

"Shit! Come on in guys!" Krieg shouted back towards the entrance, where two figures very familiar to Wolf entered.

The first was an old comrade of Wolf's, from his MW2 days, Xterminater. He was dressed in full, black combat armor with a balaclava over his face, which not even Wolf has seen. Wolf had some good memories with Xterminater, even if the almost always ended up with Wolf dead and Xterminater in a fist fight with some asshole before blacking out. They had fallen out of touch a while back because his girlfriend had gone missing and his daily life got too hectic.

PMCs have busy lives after all.

"Hey," Wolf greeted, "my favorite merc without a mouth! What are you doing here?"

"Eh, I heard you were in deep shit and figured I'd lend a hand, and I always pay back my debts."

"Like a Lannist-"

Xterminater gave Lyle a look so withering Marijuana fields on Rook Island spontaneously dried up and died.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: DID I EVER TELL YOU…THE DEFINITION OF GAME OF THRONES?**

The second recruit was a more recent acquaintance, but far less pleasant. Staring at him from behind the large, almost insect like red lens of his gas mask, was Rinzler. His massive bulk betrayed no outright hostility, but Wolf could feel the giants gaze digging holes into him.

While Catherine started up a new pool on who would blink first, Wolf stepped towards Rinzler.

"H-Hey there. Umm, so why did-" Rinzler raised a hand which promptly shut Wolf up.

"Do you remember my clan?"

"Yes…"

"We're split up now. Illusion-Fox has decided to never play multiplayer, only doing round after round of zombies. Marcus gave up on Call of Duty altogether, instead going off and playing Planetside 2. But do you know what's the worst blow, the one that scattered me and my friends in the first place?"

"Was it the girl-"

"Shinikami, she was called Shinikami." Wolf couldn't find it in him to look into Rinzler's lens. "And while you were busy killing me and Marcus, this Felicity person banned Shinikami with _his,_" Henry felt Rinzler's gaze pass over him for a brief moment before it continued to assault Wolf, "Banhammer hack. So I'm not here to save you from Felicity. I'm here to make sure no one else suffers like us, even at the cost at of my own freedom."

"I appreciate the help, and I really am sorry for how our last match. No game should ever be played that brutally with other people." Rinzler, satisfied that the facts were straight and Wolf felt a reasonable amount of guilt, lessened his glare so the blonde could breathe easier. "Now we've got a nice eight man team, if one person stays behind, to take on Lodestar in a private Ground War."

"Actually, no." Henry chimed in after he finished scooping out the contents of the pot from earlier. "Me and my associates won't be directly involved with the operation. If you're defeated by Felicity, we don't want to put ourselves at risk again."

"That's how he lost his Granny." Catherine mentioned offhandedly.

Despite being annoyed by the reduction in his forces, the small joy Wolf took that he wasn't the only one terrorized by Felicity allowed him to keep his face neutral. "Alright, then we'll have a six man team and make it Team Deathmatch."

"We should probably do Hardcore TDM," Krysta chirped, "to further throw the enemy off balance once Prometheus strips away their invulnerability. They mostly stick to the core game types so they aren't used to the higher difficulty."

"Good idea. Anything else we should discuss before I log off? It's been a long bloody day and I really need to sleep."

"Ja, where are we going to stage our defense?"

"Oh that is the easiest question of them all."

Wolf smirked fiendishly and made for the door. "We go where it all began."

:::::

_Drone_

:::::

After Wolf logged off for a nine hour dead sleep, then breakfast, followed by hours of ARMA 2 MSO videos, he finally remembering his situation in COD and jumped online.

By the time everyone else got on and organized there was under an hour left before Felicity arrived, but at least Wolf had the home field advantage by selecting the game type and map.

The match was hardcore, with no respawns and only one life. Health regen was off, and the HUD was limited. It wouldn't help if the psycho ginger got within stabbing distance, but it will be easier to bring her down before she can get close enough.

Krieg trotted up beside the blonde, finger already hovering near his trigger in anticipation. "So what's the game plan here?"

"Do we need one?" Carly asked, yawning and leaning on Krysta. "Let's just run and gun, hope for the best."

Xterminater, the oldest one here by a long shot, shook his head derisively. "Against an enemy with unknown capabilities, even with Prometheus grounding them? Suicide, plain and simple."

"Meany." The brunette stuck her tongue out at the merc.

"So we cut the map in half, make a clear line across its middle like on carrier?" The German offered..

"I was thinking that as well," Rinzler said, far less malicious then the previous day, "but my clan did the same when Felicity and Wolf attacked and we were crushed in under a minute."

Gears finally clinked into place inside Wolf's head. "Alright guys, follow me!"

He proceeded to lead the merry bunch from the parking lot spawn north, off the road and into the grass. He flew up the staircase, mostly ignoring the tunnel, and stood far too proudly atop the helipad with the group slowly filing in behind him.

"Here's the plan. Since we don't know the full roster of enemies coming, I'll work off the assumption that at least Felicity and Neil will appear in person. We know Felicity loves to get up close and personal, while Neil wants to stay back and snipe. Luckily, the solution to both is the same. More gun."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THE HEAVY'S A SPY!**

"Xterminator," Wolf pointed to the merc, "You will be positioned here behind the helicopter, preferably with a sniper or some assault rifle that can go the distance."

Underneath his balaclava Xterminater was smiling. Switching loadouts, as no one had been killed yet it was allowed, and spawned a DSR in his hands and an M8A1 across his back. "I have both."

Nodding in satisfaction, Wolf next addressed Carly and Krieg. "Krieg, you and Carly will be manning the room inside the building, at the large window. You use your FAL and uncanny accuracy to counter snipe Neil and anyone else trying to pick us off while Carly will mow down anyone who tries to rush you with her HAMR."

While they spawned their weapons and made for their positions, Wolf addressed the final two. "You guys are going to watch our flanks. Rinzler, you cover the staircase inside the building so no one slips inside from beneath Carly and Krieg's line of sight. Krysta, you set up camp on the staircase we came up so no one comes from beneath us or from the parking lot spawn."

"Sounds good," Krysta spawned her crossbow as Rinzler departed, "but what are you going to be doing?"

"Me? Why I have the most dangerous job of them all!"

Turning with a flourish, Wolf ran off the helipad and jumped down to the street below. With the tap of his tacpad his new loadout came online. In his left hand an assault shield with Siberia camo formed and he slammed it into the ground before him. In his right hand his old Mk48 with foregrip and matching camo to the shield spawned and was positioned over the top of the now deployed shield.

"I'm bait."

:::::

"_Five new players have joined the game!_"

"Here's Felicity!"

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THE DULLING!**

Shouted the ginger as she, Neil, Leo, and two others spawned in the woody, northwest corner of the map. She frowned when no screams of terror came to greet her. "What's going on here? I don't smell people shitting bricks and soiling their loins."

"Perhaps they assume they have a chance against us." Leo advised. "Do not underestimate a cornered animal."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get to the disemboweling. Wolf set this to hardcore so they will feel all the pain of being stabbed, electrocuted, and shot without having to deal with the cleanup."

The Brit noticeably cringed. _Dumb Yank. If he's lucky I'll put a bullet between his eyes before she sinks her teeth into him._

"That wouldn't be wise. You know she dislikes having her chew toys taken away."

Neil jumped in surprise at Leo's pointed statement. "How do you do that shit?"

"The human face is incredibly telling about the man beneath, it betrays you." Green eyes looked over the Brit in green. "Don't you have a sister to protect?"

"Is that a threat?"

"No, that would require me to take an interest in your affairs. Merely offering a reminder to a teammate. Also, Felicity has asked me to keep my eyes open for any potential dates for her lonesome self-"

Neil was already lunging for the indifferent man when Felicity turned to them from the front of the group. "Oi! Save it for enemy or I'm benching the both of you."

By benching, she meant tying them together and actually benching their combined weight like a barbell. She was surprisingly strong, even without her hacks.

Both cringing from painful recollection of the last guy to be benched and fell in line behind the ginger and the two others. While both were dressed in black, they were two vastly different individuals.

The first was the kind of guy who belonged with a shady, criminal organization. Actually he already belonged to several. Lord Omeagus, or Omeagus, was a neo Nazi. Seriously, he was a screwed up individual. He even joined the KKK, and _not _for the weekly cake raffle.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: THE BAR HAS BEEN LOWERED, SIR NEWMAN.**

The second was the last king of guy you would expect in Lodestar. A priest by the name of Vincent. He wasn't even a deranged lunatic or barking mad racist, just an average bloke. Except that he was Felicity's father.

So while Omeagus is a lot like Felicity, but incredibly racist and even she finds him offensive, Vincent is cowardly and stays as far from danger as possible.

"Wonder where they are?" Vincent, already skittish and jumpy, asked while the clan walked down the road, almost to the van that came before the main road's gate.

"Doesn't matter, they'll still die like the unclean scum they are." The resident Aryan claimed boldly, while everyone else rolled their eyes. In truth, Felicity only kept him around because his intolerance led to occasional bouts of creativity when exacting his ill placed righteous fury that she found entertaining. Besides that he was good enough with his scopeless Ballista that she used him for missions like this.

"Hey, I called dibs on Wolf and…" Felicity checked the scoreboard, "holy crap I know everyone Wolf brought!"

Leo checked the board, his eyes shining in recognition as well. "Will that be a problem?"

"Nah, let's just see how this goes." Shrugging, she continued around the van and stood proudly between the gate. "Now who wants a free disemboweling?!"

:::::

"They're here." Wolf groaned as Felicity finished shouting down the street.

"Ah, Wolfy!" Felicity squealed with sadistic glee. "I knew you wouldn't go down without a fight, but what's with the back up? You brought a drunk, a former victim of yours, a mutual friend of ours, my ex, and the girl who stole my ex."

Carly barged onto the helipad before Wolf could fully process what Felicity said. "For the last time I'm not gay! We're just friends you jealous fruit loop!" And then ran back inside as Omeagus took a pot shot at her.

Wolf ducked behind his shield and hollered back to the group, "Did she say we had a mutual friend besides Krysta and Carly?"

"That would be me." Xterminater of all people called back. "Sorry, I should have mentioned it earlier but Felicity has helped me with my work outside of COD, so we are technically mutual acquaintances."

"Define acquaintances."

"Shared a hotel room, drove cross country together, had dinner with her folks, and she's helped with some of my personal matters."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: DID HE GO TO THE REVOLVER OCELOT SCHOOL OF LOYALITY?**

Following a concerto of facepalms from the rest of the team he added, "but you don't need to worry. I'm here to pay off my debt to you so I won't have a problem with fighting Felicity."

Oddly enough Felicity was the one who rose to his defense. "He's not lying; he really will have no problem fighting."

"Excuse me," Felicity glared over her shoulder at Omeagus for daring to interrupt, "but can we hurry this up. There's a gay pride rally in an hour and I need time to set up my tear gas mortar."

A Banhammer infused knife was put to his throat. "You better be joking."

"Yeah! It was a joke, I'm not going to crash any rally!" The ginger removed her knife and he let a sigh of relief.

"Now you ruined my mood. How about you start the killing yourself until I get back into the mindset?"

"Yes sir!" The scared straight Aryan nodded sharply, taking point in the group and looking down his sniper's iron sights. "I'll start with some wall hacks and take out the merc."

He lined up the shot, thought of something anti-Semitic to say but everyone was glaring at him so he saved it for later, and fired at Xterminater. The bullet flew true, straight towards the helicopter that served as the wide eyed merc's cover.

And harmlessly pinged off the side.

"What the hell?! That should have gone clean through!"

Wolf heard Krieg's voice over the party chat. "I think it is time to lift the curtain and get this show underway, Ja?"

"Definitely." From behind the safety of his shield Wolf sneered at his bewildered opponents. "It's no use wondering why your hacks won't work, because we shut them off with-"

"Prometheus?"

"Exactly! Prometheus, the secret code you…should know nothing about. OH COME ON!"

The insane ginger giggled at his suffering, which was downright creepy coming from her. "It must be frustrating to never have the advantage? Well it wasn't all for naught. As you can see by my confused compatriots, I'm the only one fully aware of Prometheus's existence and it did remove most of our hacks, but it won't save you."

"HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THIS?!"

:::::

_Henry's bar at the exact same time._

:::::

"Hey Catherine."

"What, runt?"

"Did you know you talk in your sleep?"

"No…what did I say?"

"You sang Billy Joel's _Piano Man_ and described Prometheus in detail."

"Weird, but I'm sure it won't come back to bite us in the ass."

:::::

_Drone_

:::::

"Omeagus~" She smiled sweetly at the racist in front of her. "Why don't you test out that new hack you've been working on while we observe from the grass back there?"

Nodding in affirmation, he began to frantically type away at his tacpad for a few seconds before pulling a spawn beacon from his belt. "Of course. I've created the perfect tool for wiping away the unclean masses!" He dropped the beacon behind the impenetrable gate and Wolf could see a faint yellow light coming around the bend. "Behold and be swallowed by your own filth!"

"How can they be using hacks with Prometheus active?" Krieg asked in disbelief.

Since Wolf, as per usual, didn't have the answer, Krysta did it for him. "Prometheus only covers known hacks, so anything new or never used before is fair game. It's not very-"

Chatter died immediately when the clammy hands of a zombie pulled itself around the gate. Another zombie came around, and another, and another. As though from a leaky faucet a dozen zombies filed into the street and paraded towards Wolf, although they weren't the first to look at him like a piece of meat over the past couple of days.

Wolf sighted the closest zombie from over his shield. "Don't suppose any nuns have a piano to drop on them?"

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: ZOMBIE KILL OF THE WEEK!**

"Can the talk and open fire!" Xterminater fired, aiming for Omeagus and hoping his death would stop the zombies from spawning, but he ducked behind the gate with the rest of Lodestar. The combined barrage of his headshots, with enough penetrating power to nail two to three zombies in a single bullet, and Wolf's torrent of LMG fire, the first dozen were obliterated almost instantly, but they were only the vanguard.

The undead poured into the street in droves, and for every one they took down two more took its place. The only saving grace was that they were slow zombies, because Wolf was not going to re-enact World War Z.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: PRODUCT PLACEMENT TO THE PEPSI MAX!**

"You know we're going to run out of ammo eventually, right Wolf?"

"I know, but we don't have much of a choice! Do you want to be the one down here with the zombies?"

"Actually I do." Xterminator tapped his earpiece. "Krieg, take my position and Wolf stand aside."

Krieg sprinted out onto the helipad, not having time to gawk at the horde of undead encroaching on their position, opened fire while the merc climbed down the air conditioning units and onto the street. Wolf followed his direction and stepped aside, the shield not entirely useful while the zombies where so far away, though Xterminator seemed to think otherwise.

Dropping his sniper to the ground and undeploying the shield, Xterminator gave Wolf a brief glance. "I'll destroy that spawn beacon. You mind carving a path without giving me a bullet enema?"

"No promises." Wolf clambered back onto the helipad and stood beside the German. "Alright old buddy old pal. I'll cut a path down the middle while you nail anything that tries to swipe Xterminator from the side."

"I'm pushing!" Xterminator charged forward, shield bashing aside the first zombies before a hail of bullets flew overhead and cut down the undead marauders, with more precise shots covering his sides and rear.

When Xterminator was halfway through the horde, Wolf was struck with on odd thought. "Doesn't this feel too easy?"

"Ja, but the guy who unleashed these zombies didn't seem too smart to begin with."

"Still, I always remembered the Zombies mode being more difficult."

"That's because it's balanced. The players always start with crap weapons and are no more than four players strong. Zombies spawn in multiple places and there are no perfect choke points to funnel enemies without a route they can flank you with. Here," Krieg motioned to the street with an empty mag while reloading, "it's hardly a threat when they come from one, narrow place. Look, Xterminater just got around the gate."

"And now the zombies stopped spawning."

"Xterminator is dragging the racist guy into the street."

"Looks like he's going for the ground pound."

"Ja, and-OH that is disgusting. I didn't even know you could decapitate someone with an assault shield!"

The worst part was that they both knew Xterminater was wearing a very Felicity-esq smile under his balaclava, all the while he continued to beat the headless corpse. He even waved to them, hand clutching something that looked like sausage links, Wolf hoped were sausage links, but knew were not sausage links.

Damn hardcore mode.

They could see Xterminator finish up tenderizing the meat and begin to return to his position when he turned back towards the enemy encampment-more like a picnic with how serious they were taking this. Wolf swore he saw them sharing tea and cookies- on the ridge.

Wolf scratched his morning stubble in confusion. "What's he doing? You don't think he plans on taking on all of Lodestar by himself?"

"You're his friend so you should know!"

"I never said we were really close, nowhere near how close he is with Felicity…balls."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: WHO DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING?**

The merc disconnected with little ceremony, the laughter of Felicity following soon after. "I knew he would do that! Good job digging up that info, Leo, or I might have had to kill him."

Krieg groaned, this game of one-up-ship becoming painfully predictable. "Would you care to explain this, you crazy ginger?"

"Certainly!" She cupped her hands to bolster her shouts. "We bribed Xterminater with info about his missing lady…and I promised him a pound cake if he left the match! He did say he was sorry though!"

"Great," Krieg ran his hand across his face and eyed Wolf, "you have horrible tastes in friends. First Neil, then Felicity, and now Xterminater! Was Sadam your pen pal as well?"

"No but If my memory serves me correct I once took a crafts class with Kin Jung Un. That explains everything!" The blonde shot back, both bitter and sarcastic. "You know you are also a friend of mine."

"And I'm starting to regret it. Bah, I should have brought some bourbon."

"If we make it out of this I'll buy you an entire case."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"YAHOO!" The German almost leapt off the helipad and sprinted towards the enemy if not for the entirety of his team having to grab each of his limbs and carry him inside the structure. "Let me go! I want to fight!"

Krysta and Carly, each taking a leg, snickered. "He really is easy to encourage, eh Carly?"

"Yeah, but it's kind of an endearing trait."

Like a switch was flipped Krieg went from booze hound to gallant gentlemen. "Endearing you say?" Also like a switch was the group's tolerance for carrying him, so he was dropped in the middle of the hall.

This was going to be a long match.

:::::

_Five Minutes Later._

:::::

"My God," Wolf gasped, wiping the sweat from his brow, "that was the most intense, five minutes of conflict I've ever experienced in Call of Duty. I've never seen a simultaneous attack by a drone swarm, attack dogs, and a Lodestar. I'm amazed we survived!"

"Yeah," Carly wiped some drool off her chin, "And when Krieg and Rinzler went shirtless to distract the priest...damn you guys are well built."

"Don't know why you wouldn't let me take my shirt off…"

"Sorry, but you're too chubby, and we didn't want to risk scaring him off. At least you got to shoot him while the men flexed in front of the window."

The two shirtless men could feel Wolf's glare burrowing into them as they dressed, and felt sorely tempted to tell him to lay off the cheeseburgers.

"Lay off the cheeseburgers next time." Krieg guffawed while Rinzler nodded in solemn agreement.

"Grr, let's just wait for the next attack. There are only three more enemies left and we outnumber them easily."

Krysta's hand shot into the air. "True, but we've used up most of our ammo on the zombies and puppies." She dropped her empty crossbow and accepted the Kap 40 offered by Carly. "At this rate we'll be fighting with sticks and stones, and we all know that's Felicity's specialty."

"We still have numbers!"

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: HE NEVER LEARNS, DOES HE?**

:::::

"There goes Vincent." Neil remarked. The clan was still sitting in the grass by the tree, sipping tea from a thermos Leo had bought. "Want me to go next and get this over with?"

"Eh, might as-"

"Pardon me," Leo cut Felicity off, "but could I have a crack at them? There's something that I've been working on and this could serve as a good test run."

The Brit found it difficult to stop himself from strangling the normally aloof lieutenant. "I think it would be faster if I snipe them. Besides," he tried to look as evil and wicked as possible when addressing Felicity, "I thought you love when I void people's skulls?"

The ginger pouted, head on a swivel and shifting between Neil and Leo. "They're both tempting…don't suppose we can do both."

"No."

"Then I'll let Leo take this one. Sorry Neil, but it's so rare to see him want to do any grunt work."

Leo let a small smile tug at the corners of his lips from beneath his shawl. "Then let's begin."

:::::

Krieg had finished brushing the dust off his coat when a flash of light overcame him and the others, like a flashbang without the bang.

As quick as it came the light receded, and he found himself alone in the room. He felt a sudden wave of nausea overcome him and had to lean against the room's desk.

"What da Hell happened?"

A screeching sound, like metal on metal came from the hall. He raised his weapon but found that his FAL was replaced by his combat knife and was nowhere in sight. "SchieBe."

The screeching stopped as a woman turned the corner, her own knife still dragging across metal wall. "I always loved when you talked German."

Krieg felt his heart skip a beat, and didn't even notice his only weapon slip from his clammy fingers and fall to the floor. "It can't be. Impossible!"

But it was. Before him, in her favorite long blue skirt, white blouse, and blonde hair pulled back into a bun, was Saber. The woman whose torture at the hands of two assholes made Krieg the drunk he is today.

"Why are saying such things? Is it all that hard to believe I'd come back to help you?"

A broken smile spread across his face, and tears began to well in the corner of his eyes. He took a shaky step towards her, and she met him half way. Her fingers ran across his gruff face, tracing the line of his jawbone.

"W-Why did you come back?" Krieg voice caught in his throat.

She smiled warmly, like she used to so long ago. "I came back for you, Faust."

A burning sensation came from Krieg's side, and when he looked down he saw Saber's knife tracing his ribcage, a crimson line following in its wake. Krieg pushed the woman back in surprise while shakily retrieving his fallen weapon.

"I never told Saber my real name!" He pointed the blade at the woman as her smile, once full of warmth, became twisted with malice. "Who are you?!"

"Krieg, I'm hurt~" Her regal voice was filled with loathing and hate despite its soft tone. "It's me, Arturia, and I've come here for you~"

:::::

Two blades clashed on the assembly line floor, sparks glinting off their edges and illuminating the burning hatred in their wielder's eyes.

"You aren't Krysta, you imposter!" Carly hissed, ducking a slash meant for her throat.

"And you aren't Carly, you super imposter!" Krysta unleashed a flurry of blows, each subsequent stab closer to their target but always parried or dodged before any damage was done. Carly retaliated with a low kick to Krysta's knees, but hit nothing but air when she spun around the blow.

Finishing her pirouette Krysta's fist snapped out and struck the back of the brunette's hand with a bone breaking pommel bash.

"Aagh!" Carly jumped back, clutching her broken hand while her former knife clanged against the floor. "You rotten fake!"

She leapt with reckless abandon, startling Krysta and bringing both to the floor in a mad scramble for the remaining knife.

They rolled together on the floor until Carly found herself on top and tried to force Krysta's own knife into her throat. Putting all her weight into forcing the knife down Carly grinned victoriously as the distance closed between flesh and steel.

"Ha," Krysta spat, "this only confirms you're not Carly."

Interest peaked, but still applying pressure to the blade, the brunette raised a brow. "How so?"

"Carly knows I'm the better fighter!"

With the fierce desperation of a cornered animal the long haired girl bit down onto Carly's injured hand, the taste of copper entering her mouth. As Carly reeled back in pain, Krysta shoved her knife in between Carly's ribs.

"Gaah!"

The brunette fell onto her side, clutching the wound, while Krysta staggered to her feet over her. "Game over you fake."

"I'm sorry Krysta…"

"Sorry for what?"

"Not you, faker, the real Krysta! I'm sorry I couldn't help her beat Felicity after all this time."

"Oh come on! You're done for so just give up the-" Then she saw it. From around the knife wound Carly's body was breaking down pixel by pixel, a side effect of Banhammer banning a player.

That wouldn't happen to a fake created by a hack.

"Carly!" She fell to her knees beside her fallen friend. "No no no no no NO!"

"Is the fake crying now?" Carly teased, suddenly finding it hard to breath.

"Damn it I'm not a fake and neither are you!" Krysta sobbed. With all her heaving the glasses balanced on her nose slid off, taking with it her HUD. Now she even looked like Carly. "It was the HUD. They hacked our HUDs to make us look like enemies to each other."

Carly coughed, red globules staining her chin. "T-That explains…a lot. Your eyes don't normally glow yellow."

"And you don't usually go around shirtless."

"Damn it…I ke-keep telling them. I'm…" her eyes fluttered closed as the Banhammer finished removing everything below the neck, "I'm straight!"

:::::

Felicity lowered her tacpad, turning off the remote footage of Krysta crying over a banned Carly.

"Leo, what the Hell is that hack of yours?" Felicity asked, her voice emotionless and cold.

"Actually I used three hacks, one for Krieg, Rinzler, and Wolf and another for Krysta and Carly. The third hack was to force them to use their combat knives, but that's hardly worth mentioning." His tone was as blasé as though he were reading off a grocery list. "The one for the latter group was the second simplest in that all it did was manipulate their HUDs so they see each other as enemies. Admittedly I expected them to stab each other and score a double kill, but the results were still positive."

"And the former group?"

An excited jump came into the lilt of his speech. "That is something I've spent a long time working on. It digs through their account and game history, even the controller's scans of their brain waves, to find the most powerful memory they have with some sort of emotional connection. For the German it appeared to be a woman from his past, so the hack creates a replica using the victims own knowledge of the replica, as well that person's account. In this case, it used Krieg's knowledge of the woman and her unused account's records of her matches to fill in her personality, mannerisms, and other quirks. This replica is then sent out to engage to engage the victim, playing off their fears, doubts, regrets, even their own fantasies."

He paused to get his almost giddy voice under control. "It is the most deadly hack I've ever created, and the cruelest."

"And you said Wolf was also facing this?" Neil glowered at the hacker, surprised Felicity was doing so as well.

"I presume he's already been overrun by his most cherished memories, and his most feared-"

:::::

_Two minutes ago_

:::::

"My name in this world is Lonewolf685."

SCHINK

"I've said before that I've choose this name because I always end up alone, but that isn't the whole truth."

Blood dripped from steel.

"I am the lone wolf because I destroy those I hold close to me."

"Why, Wolf?" A fake Krysta pleaded as she slid off Wolf's bloody knife. She fell to the crimson stained asphalt, alongside the bodies of many others

Wolf gave the dead bot a hollow smile. "I don't deserve a pack."

Fake Krieg tried to come up behind him only for his gut to be slashed open. The fake fell to the ground, clutching at its wound, and repeatedly muttering Wolf's name.

No matter how many times Wolf stabbed them, sliced them, punched them, or kicked them, they never stopped saying his name. There was a fake for everyone on his team, for all of Rinzler's clan. Everyone who ever reached out to him was here among the babbling dead, and Wolf could feel himself breaking with every body he added to the pile.

They were so slow that the act of killing was dreadfully easy, but it wasn't a physical pain they inflicted. The burden of pushing them away at first, and now being forced to cut them down with his own hands was fracturing his very being.

He dodged a clumsy stab from his cousin before driving his knife through his cousin's chest. "Please stop!" He begged the fake.

"Wolf~"

"I can't keep doing this!"

"Wolf~ Wolf~"

"I don't want to fight you!"

"Wolf~ Wolf~ Wolf~"

"MAKE IT STOP!"

"Then die." A familiar voice whispered from behind him.

He whirled around to face the new fake, but found the most horrifying one of them all.

It was Wolf, more precisely Wolf from his Modern Warfare 2 days.

"Why don't you die?" The fake inquired. "If you can't handle this, then let yourself be overwhelmed. No one would blame you against such an onslaught." The fake didn't make a move to attack, opting to stand there and rock back and forth on the balls of his heels. It was disturbing just how happy the fake looked, and not insane happy, but genuine happiness. He forgot there was even a time when he could feel that in this horrid world.

Wolf scowled, noticing no more fakes were spawning and even the corpses had fallen silent. "It's not that simple-"

"Yes it is. You don't even have to do it yourself, just let me." He patted his Ranger shotgun. "Why won't you die?"

"Why won't you die?" The dead echoed his words. "Why won't you die?"

"What keeps you going?" The fake asked with the innocence of a child. "You have nothing to fight for. No causes to carry on, friends to protect, and you value yourself at next to nil. Why do you fight when it would be so much easier-"

"YOU THINK I WANT TO?!" The real one beat his chest and roared with pained fury. "I WANT TO! EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING WANTS TO FALL, TO BREAK, TO GIVE IN AND LET IT ALL GO, BUT I CAN'T! NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY I just can't stop." His voice cracked under the strain. "No matter how harsh the storm, no matter how heavy the weight, I can't give up."

The fake quirked his head to the side in childlike confusion. "You haven't answered my question."

"Yes I have, you just don't listen!" He gripped the clothing over his heart and met the fakes smile with his own. "I can't die because there is a burden I must carry. I may carry it alone, but it's my burden and as long as I still fight, others will be spared my suffering. I now know why I fight…"

"For everyone whose fallen, I'll carry their burdens. For those who continue to fight, I'll support them. And for those who've moved on after winning their battles, I'll honor their sacrifice. SO WHEN YOU ASK WHY I FIGHT, KNOW THAT I FIGHT FOR THE FRIENDS I CAN NEVER HAVE!"

The fake was completely stunned, so stunned it couldn't even react when Wolf lunged forward and thrust his knife into the fake's throat.

"You would even kill me?" He asked, despite the severed vocal chords.

"Even you, my foolish happiness. Oh," Wolf took the Ranger from the fake's thigh holster, "I'll be taking this."

***DING* ACHEIVEMENT UNLOCKED: EAT YOUR HEART OUT, HEROIC SPIRIT EMIYA!**

:::::

"I presume he's already been overrun by his most cherished memories, and his most feared-"

A combat knife caved in the top of Leo's skull from behind, before twisting and sawing its way out the back. Neil and Felicity leapt to their feet while Wolf released the knife and let Leo's body fall to the side.

"Did ya miss me?" Neil moved to draw his sidearm in response but Wolf drew his Ranger faster. "Why don't you sit this one out, Neil? Felicity and I need to talk."

"Idiot!" The Brit shouted. "You don't stand a chance against her!"

"Shut up Neil!" Both the ginger and blonde shouted. "We don't need you to state the obvious."

"Now," Felicity turned her attention to Wolf, eyes holding the anticipation of a child at Christmas before they open a present, "are we doing this the easy way, or the hard way?"

The fire that once ran wild inside Wolf's eye had condensed into a single, determined flame. "I'm tired of all the drawn out fighting, so how about we do this the fun way?"

:::::

Krysta dragged herself out the factory window, managing to land shakily on her feet on the street below. She wiped away a stray tear going down her cheek and turned her head to the sound of clashing steel.

"You hear it too?"

Krysta turned and saw Krieg stumble onto the road from a side street. His coat was torn and bloody, hair missing one of its 'ears', and much like Krysta his face was stained with tears. Thankfully any damages inflicted in hardcore mode are healed afterwards, but that didn't offer much consolation at the moment.

"Where's Carly?" He asked, drawing in a breath to steady himself.

"She…didn't make it."

The German clasped her shoulder comfortingly. "We've all suffered losses today. Rinzler…didn't make it as well."

"Did your HUD trick you into killing him as well?"

"No, there were bots created based on past friends of ours. I found him being held in the arms of a small, deranged girl with a knife sticking out his back. I didn't even get the chance to talk before she pulled out a grenade and blew her and Rinzler to bits."

Krysta buried her head into Krieg's shoulder and sniffled. "Damn it Leo."

"Leo?"

"The guy who did this, I'm assuming. Hacks like this aren't hands on enough for Felicity to use." She pushed away to stand on her own. "She can be cruel, but not like this. Never like this."

"Well that's-" Krieg fell dead silent when an inhuman roar came from the direction of clashing steel, which had failed to resume. Both shared a worried look before running down the street, slipping through the gate and coming to a full stop after the van.

Up on the ridge, two warriors, eyes alight with passion and smiles broad, stood motionless with each of their blades buried in the other.

"Hehe," Felicity coughed out a cackle, "I'm surprised I lost this one, Wolfy."

"Nah, you didn't lose. Think of this as the both of us winning."

"You crazy bastard. We could have had the game on a platter if we worked together!"

Wolf laughed heartily, spittle mixing with the blood going down his chin. "I've chosen to carry people's burdens, not cause them."

"But look at yourself! Even now you're only a little better than average. How can you carry burdens when you aren't the strongest?"

"If someone must die then I will die. If someone must claim a life I will claim it. You sought joy by causing suffering, so I will seek pain by accepting suffering."

"You trying to play Jesus?"

"No, I'm just playing the game."

With one final, insane laugh, Felicity fell to her side, off the ridge and landing with her head at Krysta's feet. "Oh, sorry about Carly," she coughed as her body below the waist was deleted, "tell her I'll have another console in the mail for her. I never meant to hurt you like that, and I would have stopped Leo if I could, but Wolf beat me to it."

Krysta kneeled down and gripped Felicity's hand in her own. "Are you having a change of heart?"

"That would require me to have a heart, is what Carly would say, but I think I am. I'm sorry I put you all through this, I really let it all get out of control, but there's only one thing left for me to do." She released her grip on Krysta as her arm disintegrated. "I'm letting you go, Krysta. I'm letting you, Lodestar, and all of Call of Duty go so you can all move on with your lives. Neil!" She shouted back up the ridge. "Do whatever you want, no one will threaten your sister. And Wolf."

"Yeah?"

"That burden of yours…it's going to break you one day."

"I look forward to it."

Felicity felt herself almost be fully deleted, not feeling anything below her chin. "You're one weird guy, Hell, we're all weird! YOLO SWAG!" And with that final SWAG, Felicity was banned from Black Ops 2, and would never be seen in another Call of Duty game again.

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: LIKE A BALLA!**

The players of Battlefield 4, however, would rue the day she arrived. It was called Massacre Monday, followed by Torture Tuesday, then Whipping Wednesday, but everyone enjoyed Taco Thursday.

"Wolf!" Krieg stormed up the stairs and kneeled beside his fallen comrade. He was already missing his arms and legs, only his upper torso remaining. "You damn fool! Why couldn't you wait for us?"

"And risk you guys being hurt? Nein."

"You're German is awful." He chuckled bitterly.

"The butchering of foreign languages is more American then baseball and hamburgers."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: IGNORANCE IS ALSO A PASTIME**

The German would have corrected Wolf, being a resident of Hamburg himself, but Neil crawled over to Wolf's side and stole his attention.

"I can't believe you really did it, Yank- I mean Wolf. You really beat Felicity!"

"She's gone, so Patty should be safe to play without fear of Lodestar targeting her. You're free as well so enjoy it."

"You don't hate me? I betrayed all of you."

"Look," Wolf was only a head now, "you took on a hefty burden to protect your sister, and you even risked that to try and help me as well, so let me take your pain one last time." He gave them a cheeky grin. "There's an old saying, one that offers comfort to the soul before great adversity." With only seconds left, Wolf said his final word in Call of Duty. "Allons-y!"

:::::

"Allons-y…"

A blonde with muddy blue/green eyes removed his helmet like controller and stared at his now powered off console.

He sat on his couch, all alone.

No one left to stand by his side.

"I don't think I'll be respawning from this."

A ray of light shone through his basement window and glinted off the plastic of an unopened game. He pushed himself off his coach and picked up the box.

"Or maybe I will. I did like the Frostbite 2 engine."

***DING* ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: I DON'T THINK HE'LL LIKE WHAT HE FINDS "ONLY ON BATTLEFIELD"!**

"And where the fuck is that dinging noise coming from?!"

:::::

_Two Weeks Later_

:::::

Patty and Neil were enjoying fish and chips while watching a movie when a knocking came at the door.

"It's your turn to get the door, Patty." Neil nudged his sister playfully.

Patty outright slugged him off the couch. "I made lunch and bought the groceries. You get the damn door!"

The news about him being a member of a hacker collective had angered her to no end, but she was starting to forgive him. She also enjoyed having the moral high ground so he was delegated most of the chores in their shared flat.

"Fine!" He scrambled to his feet and made for the door, narrowly dodging a burnt fry flung at his head. He went to the front, where the knocking had not stopped, and opened the door. "Hello there- Krieg?!"

"Ja," The German clasped Neil's shoulders and let himself in, "It is I."

"But how did you find where I lived?"

Krieg scratched the back of his head and looked down at his feet. "During the whole commotion on Black Ops 2 I never actually got around to removing Felicity from my friends list, and figured she owed me a favor. Luckily she agreed and coughed up your address."

"That's all kinds of scary that she knows my address, but I shouldn't be surprised, should I?"

Krieg shook his head. "I'm sure she'll leave you be, but I'm actually here on a personal matter."

"Oh, what can I do?"

"I'm really unfamiliar with jolly old England, so I was wondering if you could help me find someone."

"Not exactly a PI, but I'll do what I can. Who are you looking for?"

Krieg began to rummage in the duffel bag across his bag. "During our battle with Lodestar, a guy named Leo sent a copy of someone important after me. I'll never forgive that bastard for what he did, but it did give me one important tidbit of information I would have never found out." His face lit up when his hand finally caught hold what he was looking for.

He pulled out a photo, actually it was a screenshot, of a blonde woman in a blue skirt and white blouse.

"I need you to help me find this woman. Thanks to Leo's hack I now know her name's Arturia."

Neil nodded in understanding. "I'll do what I can." He motioned Krieg further inside the house while he studied the picture. "So why are you looking for her? Is she why you smell sober?"

"I think so. Truth be told…I think she's the one."

"Are you blushing?"

"Nein!"

"Sure you aren't." Neil snickered. "I just hope you have better luck with woman then Wolf."

:::::

_Henry's Bar, Black Ops 2_

:::::

"Welcome back you two." Catherine greeted Carly and Krysta as they entered. "Had a good match?"

"Yup!" Carly squeezed past some other members of Lodestar and sat at the bar. "Tried out some new weapon camos but still haven't found a personal favorite."

"You should be glad Felicity even sent you all that cash with the new console," Henry said as he came out of the kitchen carrying a large pot between two oven mitts, "she didn't have to give you anything."

He banged his wooden spoon against the pot's side. "Alright people, does everyone have their spoon?"

Over two dozen hackers all held up their utensil. "Yeah!"

"Then dig in!"

Like a swarm of piranha everyone save Henry, Lyly, Catherine, and Krysta descended upon Lodestar's _current _leader's latest attempt at the perfect shepherd's pie.

"Do you think she'll come back?" Krysta asked as the four them watched from a safe distance. "She has the funds to get another console and account."

"No, we watched that final match in the theater mode, and she looked sincere. Unless you go looking for her she'll stay gone."

"What," Catherine teased and bumped Krysta's elbow, "you miss your ex? I'm pretty sure the make-up sex would be amazing if you did."

"Catherine!"

"You're surprised?" Lyle snickered.

"No, but I feel like I should expect more."

The Frenchwoman put an arm around Krysta's shoulders. "Face it Dame, me and Felicity are cut from the same cloth. The only difference is that she showed more restraint and tried to go the distance with you. Sadly, her own jealousy drove you away. Oh me amore~"

She began to mimic Felicity and tightened her grip on Krysta who struggled to keep the bartender away.

While they horsed around, Lyle and Henry took a step back to give them space and observe the room as a whole.

"So what will we do know that Felicity and Wolf are gone?" Lyle asked with thoughtful expression on his face.

Henry crossed his arms behind his back and turned his head to Lyle. "You think anything's changed with the loss of two people? There are millions of people playing Call of Duty right now, everyone one of them with their own stories, experiences, and lives. Someone else will rise to oppose us, and maybe someone will come to our aid again. You know, we like to think we control the game with all our hacks and manipulation, but that's like saying a bull rider controls the bull if he stays on for eight seconds. We have no clue what will happen in this ever shifting virtual world. One day we could be cast out and destroyed by the ignorant masses we shepherd."

He sighed wistfully. "Even if our destroyer and our savior have moved on, we have to keep going. There are so many people out there, so many. I want to hear tales of amazing victories, and lament over stories of bone crushing defeat. I want to behold legendary titans of the game in epic battle, and see the uncertain steps of noobs as they enter multiplayer. I wish to smell gunpowder in the morning and plastic explosives at night. To feel every serration of the knife that pierces my heart. The horrors and wonders, all of it, are something beyond the narrative any developer can create. Only in Multiplayer can you truly see how man and woman act with no inhibitions. And Lyle," Henry smirked, "It is fantastic."


End file.
